[Tutor] sprintf-like functionality in Python

[Vicki Stanfield]

> This represents the length of 5 (05), and I need to convert it to the
> integer 5. The problem is that the first digit might be significant as in
> (0x32 0x35) which translates to 25. I am not sure how to put the two
> together in Python. In C, I'd use sprintf. In short, I start with 0x32
> 0x35 and need to translate it to the integer 25. Thanks.
>
> --vicki

Okay I got it to work (not so elegently) using this:

            output=port.read()
            length = chr(ord(output))
            output=port.read()
            newlength=length+chr(ord(output))
            num=int(newlength)
            print num

Anyway, it works...unless output is a letter which it can be since it is
hex. I get an error:

ValueError: invalid literal for int(): A

In that case, what I want is the base10 representation of the hexadecimal
letter. I thought that I could use

chr(ord(output), 16)

but that yields an error:

TypeError: chr() takes exactly 1 argument (2 given)

I am so close, but I can't quite get this figured out. Anyone?

--vicki