Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!weretis.net!feeder4.news.weretis.net!rt.uk.eu.org!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed4.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!newsgate.cistron.nl!newsgate.news.xs4all.nl!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.000 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 1.00; '*S*': 0.00; 'python.': 0.02; 'from:addr:yahoo.co.uk': 0.04; 'parameters': 0.04; 'element': 0.07; 'modify': 0.07; 'sys': 0.07; 'filename': 0.09; 'filenames': 0.09; 'filenames:': 0.09; 'lawrence': 0.09; 'newly': 0.09; 'received:80.91': 0.09; 'received:80.91.229': 0.09; 'received:gmane.org': 0.09; 'received:list': 0.09; 'spelled': 0.09; 'wrong,': 0.09; 'language.': 0.14; 'question.': 0.14; '%s\\n"': 0.16; 'filename)': 0.16; 'received:80.91.229.3': 0.16; 'received:plane.gmane.org': 0.16; 'referencing': 0.16; 'unlikely': 0.16; 'index': 0.16; 'all.': 0.16; 'language': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.18; 'bit': 0.19; 'result.': 0.19; 'slightly': 0.19; 'import': 0.22; 'print': 0.22; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.23; 'sean': 0.24; 'script': 0.25; 'shown': 0.26; 'header:X-Complaints-To:1': 0.27; 'header:In-Reply-To:1': 0.27; 'point': 0.28; 'array': 0.29; 'character': 0.29; 'code': 0.31; 'getting': 0.31; 'os,': 0.31; 'languages': 0.32; "i'd": 0.34; 'subject:with': 0.35; 'something': 0.35; 'test': 0.35; 'but': 0.35; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.38; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.39; 'received:org': 0.40; 'results.': 0.60; 'providing': 0.61; "you've": 0.63; 'our': 0.64; 'different': 0.65; 'results': 0.69; 'wish': 0.70 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: python-list@python.org From: Mark Lawrence Subject: Re: Strange behaviour with a for loop. Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2014 05:38:20 +0000 References: <4DC5A4FC-CCAF-446B-B41C-23E52C2389B6@icloud.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: host-78-147-28-114.as13285.net User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.2.0 In-Reply-To: <4DC5A4FC-CCAF-446B-B41C-23E52C2389B6@icloud.com> X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Message-ID: Lines: 52 NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6 X-Trace: 1388813882 news.xs4all.nl 2873 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:35008 X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:63111 On 04/01/2014 04:03, Sean Murphy wrote: > Hello all. > > This is a newly question. But I wish to understand why the below code is providing different results. > > import os, sys > > > if len(sys.argv) > 2: > filenames = sys.argv[1:] > else > print ("no parameters provided\n") > sys.edit() > > for filename in filenames: > print ("filename is: %s\n" %filename) > > The above code will return results like: > > filename is test.txt > > If I modify the above script slightly as shown below, I get a completely different result. > > if len(sys.argv) > 2: > filenames = sys.argv[1] > else > print ("no parameters provided\n") > sys.exit() > > for filename in filenames: > print ("filename is: %s\n" % filename) > > The result is the filename is spelled out a character at a time. The bit I am missing is something to do with splicing or referencing in Python. > > Why am I getting different results? In other languages I would have got the whole content of the element when using the index of the array (list). > > > Sean > filename is: t > filename > As you've already had answers I'd like to point out that your test for len(sys.argv) is wrong, else is missing a colon and sys.edit() is very unlikely to work :) -- My fellow Pythonistas, ask not what our language can do for you, ask what you can do for our language. Mark Lawrence