getopt with negative numbers?

[Steven Bethard]

Casey wrote:
> Is there an easy way to use getopt and still allow negative numbers as
> args?
[snip]
> Alternatively, does optparse handle this?

Peter Otten wrote:
> optparse can handle options with a negative int value; "--" can be used to
> signal that no more options will follow:
> 
>>>> import optparse
>>>> parser = optparse.OptionParser()
>>>> parser.add_option("-a", type="int")
> <Option at 0xb7d6fd8c: -a>
>>>> options, args = parser.parse_args(["-a", "-42", "--", "-123"])
>>>> options.a
> -42
>>>> args
> ['-123']

In most cases, argparse (http://argparse.python-hosting.com/) supports 
negative numbers right out of the box, with no need to use '--':

     >>> import argparse
     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     >>> parser.add_argument('-a', type=int)
     >>> parser.add_argument('b', type=int)
     >>> args = parser.parse_args('-a -42 -123'.split())
     >>> args.a
     -42
     >>> args.b
     -123


STeVe