from pony.orm import *

class Names(db.Entity):
    name = Required(str)


@db_session
def populate_names(name_list):
    for name_element in name_list:
        db.insert("Names", name=name_element)


@db_session
def test_empty():
    temp = False
    # if Names is empty, set temp = True
    if Names ... :
        temp = True

    return temp


if __name__ == "__main__":
    characters = ['James', 'Elisabeth', 'Paul', ...]

    db = Database()
    db.bind(provider='postgres', user='', password='', host='', database='')

    # generate_mappings already creates empty tables
    db.generate_mapping(create_tables=True)

    empty = test_empty()

    if empty is True:
        populate_names(characters)

if Names is None: