def execute_sql(db, sql_query):
    """Runs the generated sql_query on the DB.
    Returns the result set, and column labels."""
    curs = db.cursor()
    curs.execute(sql_query)
    columns = None
    
    # cuts the out the empty values which result from the sqlite3 'description' attribute
    if curs.description is not None:
        columns = [i[0] for i in curs.description]
        
    results = curs.fetchall()
    curs.close()
    
    return columns, results