Is there no function to convert a hex number to decimal?

[Markus Gritsch]

Markus Gritsch wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Although there are several built in functions to convert numbers from
> decimal to hex or oct, it seems that there is no function which can do
> the same in the reverse direction.  Of course I can write 0xff, but
> what should I do, if I have a string containing a hex value?
> Currently I use this brute code:
>
> hex_dec = {}
> for i in range(256):
>     hex_dec[hex(i)[2:]] = i
>
> def dec(hex_string):
>     return hex_dec[string.lower(hex_string)]
>
> But I am not entirely happy with it, because I have to generate this
> clumsy dict, and the function works only for two-digit-hex-numbers.
>
> Is there really no other way?

I found the solution in the string module:
atoi (s[, base]) and atol (s[, base])

BTW, these functions will become obsolete in python 2.0, because there will be an
optional "base" argument to the built-in functions long() and int()

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