Python newbie question re Strings and integers

[Christian Heimes]

rmac wrote:
> 
> the following code attempts to extract a symbol name from a string:
>     extensionStart = int(filename.rfind('.'))
>     filenameStart = int(filename.rfind('/'))
>     #print 'Extension Start - ' + str(extensionStart)
>     #print 'FileName Start - ' + str(filenameStart)
>     currentSymbol=filename[int(filenameStart),int(extensionStart)]
> 
> Uncommenting the print statements clearly show the values to be
> integers (and without the str casts actually provide int+string
> errors)
> 
> However, executing this code results in...
>     opening - /Users/rmac/Documents/Sandbox/data/MarketData/AA.csv
>     Traceback (most recent call last):
>       File "rHistFileToDB_Equities.py", line 25, in <module>
>         currentSymbol=filename[int(filenameStart),int(extensionStart)]
>     TypeError: string indices must be integers

You are using , inside filename[]. The splicing syntax is start:end, not 
start,end.

You are better off with using the appropriate APIs from the os.path module.

http://docs.python.org/lib/module-os.path.html

import os.path
filename = os.path.basename(path)
prefix, extension = os.path.splitext(filename)

Christian