[Tutor] need to clean a string

[johnf]

On Monday 15 December 2008 11:31:12 am Andreas Kostyrka wrote:
> Am Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:18:28 -0800
>
> schrieb johnf <jfabiani at yolo.com>:
> > Hi,
> > I have a string that I need to extract just the sql
> > statement. The following is the string
> > \000\000\000
\000\000\000\000
\000.
\000\000\000
\0000\000\000\000
> >

> > \000$\000\000\000\000
\000(
\000\000\000
\000X\000\000\000\000
\000,

> > \000\000\000
\000P\000\000\000\000
\000Q\000\000\000\000
\000R\000
> > \000\000\000
\000/\000\000\000�\000\000\000
\000%����\000\000\000

> > \000'����\000\000\000
\000+brttyp\000�\000\000\000
\000*SELECT
> > Brttyp.ctrscode, Brttyp.cdescript, Brttyp.ctrstype, Brttyp.cstatus,
> > Brttyp.lreqno, Brttyp.dcreate FROM  brttyp Brttyp WHERE
> > Brttyp.ctrscode = ( ?gcKey1 )\000\000\000\000
\000
> > AMCONNECT\000\000\000\000
\000) \000\000\000
\000
\000\000\000

> > \000\000\000
\000BR Transaction Code File\000
> >
> > How can I get rid of all the junk?
> >
> > I can find the '*' with str.find('*') but I can't use find '\000' to
> > get to the end?
>
> str.find has an optional second parameter specifying the start where to
> search:
>
> Given the above string as str, you can do:
>
> start_pos = str.find('*')
> sql = None
> if start_pos != -1:
>     end_pos = str.find('\0', start_pos)
>     if end_pos == -1:
>         end_pos = len(str)
>     sql = str[start_pos:end_pos]
>
> Andreas

Thanks I got it done just as you explained.  What was interesting was my 
editor showed '\x000'  and not '\000'  so I was always looking for the wrong 
thing.  I thought I was doing it wrong.   Then while re-reading the message I 
sent to this list I noticed the lack of the 'x'.  And sure enough that was 
the problem.  Thanks for your help.



-- 
John Fabiani