Probably a stupid newbie question....i got to ask

[David Bolen]

fett at tradersdata.com writes:

> How do you use string.atoi to convert a variable integer to a string?

You don't, because string.atoi does the reverse - converts a string
into an integer.  (The "atoi" is for alpha/ascii to integer)

The function documentation spells this out:

    >>> print string.atoi.__doc__
    atoi(s [,base]) -> int

    Return the integer represented by the string s in the given
    base, which defaults to 10.  The string s must consist of one
    or more digits, possibly preceded by a sign.  If base is 0, it
    is chosen from the leading characters of s, 0 for octal, 0x or
    0X for hexadecimal.  If base is 16, a preceding 0x or 0X is
    accepted.

Thus, for example:

    >>> string.atoi('10')
    10
    >>> string.atoi('152')
    152
    >>> string.atoi('-5')
    -5
    >>> string.atoi('0xA',16)
    10    

and it only works on integers (use string.atof for float):

    >>> string.atoi("-152.0")
    Traceback (innermost last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
    ValueError: invalid literal for atoi(): -152.0

If you want to go the other way (convert an integer into a string),
you have a few alternatives:

  * Use str(###) - this is the simplest way to get a printable string
    representation of any object.

      >>> str(10)
      '10'

  * Use a format string.  String formatting can use %s to perform
    the same operation as str(), or formats such as %d for integers or
    %f for floating point.

      >>> '%s' % 10
      '10'
      >>> '%d' % 10
      '10'
      >>> '%5d' % 10
      '   10'
      >>> '%5.2f' % 10
      '10.00'

    You can also use %x/%X (hex) or %o (octal) in format strings to
    perform a base conversion.

      >>> '%o' % 10
      '12'
      >>> '%x' % 10
      'a'
      >>> '%X' % 10
      'A'


--
-- David
-- 
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------\
 \               David Bolen            \   E-mail: db3l at fitlinxx.com  /
  |             FitLinxx, Inc.            \  Phone: (203) 708-5192    |
 /  860 Canal Street, Stamford, CT  06902   \  Fax: (203) 316-5150     \
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------/