problem while going through a tutorial

[Simon Schuster]

I'm new to python, and almost new to programming in general. I'm at
http://www.pasteur.fr/formation/info...thon/ch04.html in that
tutorial, and my 'count' function (if it's called a function?) isn't
working suddenly.

>>x = "fljshfjh"
>>x

'fljshfjh'

>>count(x, 'h')

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
NameError: name 'count' is not defined

I'm not sure what changed, because it used to work. anyhow thanks a lot!

chris

[John Machin]

Re: problem while going through a tutorial


Simon Schuster wrote:

I'm new to python, and almost new to programming in general. I'm at
http://www.pasteur.fr/formation/info...thon/ch04.html in that
tutorial, and my 'count' function (if it's called a function?) isn't
working suddenly.
>

>x = "fljshfjh"
>x

'fljshfjh'

>count(x, 'h')

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
NameError: name 'count' is not defined
>
I'm not sure what changed, because it used to work. anyhow thanks a lot!
>

Probably because you omiitted the line

from string import *

However IMHO your use of a tutorial which:

(1) introduces "from some_module import *" as though it is the normal
way of doing things

From chapter 1: """
Some magical stuff, that will be explained later:

>>from string import *

"""

That's *bad* magic


(2) is still using (outdated) functions in the string module instead of
teaching string methods

should be discontinued immediately.

You may wish to have a look at some of the /other/ tutorials mentioned
on this page:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers

HTH,
John

[Ralf Schönian]

Re: problem while going through a tutorial

Simon Schuster schrieb:
[..]

>>>x = "fljshfjh"
>>>x

'fljshfjh'

>>>count(x, 'h')

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
NameError: name 'count' is not defined
>
I'm not sure what changed, because it used to work. anyhow thanks a lot!

You forgot to import the string module:
from string import *

Regards,
Ralf Schoenian