Remove brackets from argv string

Question

I am new to Python. I'm running Raspbian and calling a Python script this way:

python testarguments.py "Here is a test parameter"

My script:

import sys
print sys.argv[1:]

Output:

['Here is a test parameter']

Question: What is the most efficient way to remove beginning and ending brackets and single quotes from sys.argv output?

Ok, was following a tutorial, so thanks for the clarification. — JamieHoward, Apr 11 '14 at 13:29
@blackairplane I didn't downvote, but some would think that it perhaps lacked a little research effort. — anon582847382, Apr 11 '14 at 13:31
@AlexThornton Thanks for the clarification. The tutorial I was following seemed to be misleading, so I appreciate the help. I'll mark question as answered as soon as SO allows me to. — JamieHoward, Apr 11 '14 at 13:33

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 11 '14 at 13:28

2

You are slicing with

sys.argv[1:]

It means that get all the elements from 1 till the end of the sequence. That is why it creates a new list.

To get only the first item, simply do

sys.argv[1]

This will get the element at index 1.

answered Apr 11 '14 at 13:28

thefourtheye

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 11 '14 at 13:28

2

The : sort of means 'and onwards' so it of course will return a list. Just do:

>>> sys.argv[1]
'Here is a test parameter'

Thus returning your first argument to executing the program, not a part of the list.

answered Apr 11 '14 at 13:28

anon582847382

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 11 '14 at 13:37

The other answers have addressed the actual issue for you, but in case you ever do encounter a string that contains characters you want to remove (like square brackets, for example), you could do the following:

my_str = "['Here is a test parameter']"
my_str.translate(None, "[]")

In other words, if the output you saw were actually a string, you could use the translate method to get what you wanted.

Remove brackets from argv string

3 Answers3