slicing question

[DPaul]

Hi,

I have a slicing question that boils down to this:

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def printslice(fname,x):     print(fname[x])   printslice('Jeremy',0)

The number (2nd argument) indicates how many letters I want from the name.
Ususally this is going to be 1 : the initial, in this case "J", position 0.
But what (number) should I pass when I want the whole name, so no slicing?

If that is not possible, of course an if 0: do this, else: do the whole name, is a workaround.
I can also calculate the length of the string and do an [x:y] slice.

But maybe there is a simpler solution?

thanks,
Paul

[deanhystad]

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def printslice(fname,x=1):     print(fname[0:x])    printslice('Jeremy') printslice('Jeremy',-1) printslice('Jeremy', None)

Output:
J
Jerem
Jeremy

[DPaul]

I like it !

thx,
Paul

PS: You may have noticed that i made a typo in the question.
It was not "how many letters I want", but "which letter position i want" (which is relevant to the problem i have)

[deanhystad]

The subject mentions slicing, the example code does indexing, and the post text talks about slicing again. I was confused and just answered the slicing question. Now I am more confused.

What are you trying to do?

[DPaul]

You are right, i did mix the words up.
I started out with indexing, but i felt i was using too many code lines,
to get either one or all letters. (And using the second argument more or less as a True/False flag)

By introducing the "None" argument, which i did not know was possible, we settled for slicing

But, i did get some new ideas out of the exercise.
Thanks,
Paul

[DPaul]

Still, what about an even simpler solution:

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def printslice(fname,x):     print(fname[0:x])   printslice('Jeremy',1) printslice('Jeremy',100)

Paul