How do I count the number of spaces at the left end of a string?

[Asun Friere]

On May 17, 8:18 am, Steven Howe <howe.ste... at gmail.com> wrote:
> walterbyrd wrote:
> > I don't know exactly what the first non-space character is. I know the
> > first non-space character will be  * or an alphanumeric character.
>
> using builtin function rindex

But only if there is a guarantee that are spaces nowhere else in the
string:

a = '    abc'
print a.rindex(' ') + 1
=> 4

Good, but ...

b = '    ab c'
b.rindex(' ') + 1
=> 7
Ouch!

The difference method suggested by Daniel Nogradi, seems the most
obvious way.

len(b) - len(b.lstrip())
=> 4

Asun