From zlotchen@cs.utk.edu Mon Jul 21 10:53:25 1997

I did not get experienced so to work with comand line args.

I did not see any casting.  But type is more or less defined by use.  It
does not matter what you pass to a function. It matters how you use what
you pass. x[:len(x)-1] may generate an array or generate an arror when
len(x) == 0.  

BTW, I think x[:len(x)-1] is equalent to x[:-1].

passing subslices workes for me.  Just watch for lenghthes.

> David ... is there a method to cast a variable to a specific type in
> python? I am trying to use a variable, passed as an input argument, to
> the specification in a slice field, but I keep getting an error that
> indicates the variable is not an integer (or maybe it is telling me that
> I must use an integer in the slice specification, not a variable ... but
> you can use something like x[:len(x)-1] so I expected to be able to use
> x[:key] where key had been previously passed as a command line argument.
> -- 

--
David Zlotchenko                       Phone: (01) (423) 974-6601
Research Services                      Email: zlotchen@utk.edu
The University of Tennessee            URL: http://www.oars.utk.edu/~zlotchen