Background

Issue #5645 - support the official mssql-python driver from Microsoft.

The new driver implements PEP 249 interfaces and should work as a pluggable drop-in: https://pypi.org/project/mssql-python/

Motivation

The driver bundles a lightweight and high-performance binary layer replacing the platform's Driver Manager hence eliminating the need for system-level ODBC installations.

As per the mssql-python overview, additional benefits include:

• Consistency across platforms
• Lower function call overhead
• Zero external dependencies on Windows (the mssql-python is all that's needed)
• Full control over connections, memory, and statement handling

Code Changes

• Implemented connect_mssql_python and moved the prior pyodbc logic to connect_pyodbc.
• Added driver configuration support for "mssql-python" to relevant *ConnectionConfig classes:
  • MSSQLConnectionConfig
  • AzureSQLConnectionConfig
  • FabricConnectionConfig
• Updated documentation.
• Automated refactors around import order (done by ruff and pylance).

Test Plan

All CI runs are successful.

The fast-test, slow-test and doc-test targets are also passing (locally).

However, there is one issue with the test_state_sync:test_version_schema test case being "out of sync" and prompting for a migration when run locally - I have yet to resolve this.