Python – Weirdness calling str() to convert integer to string in Python 3

pythonpython-3.xshadowing

Why is this giving me an error?

>>> variable = str(21)

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#101>", line 1, in <module>
    variable = str(21)
TypeError: 'str' object is not callable

Best Answer

That code alone won't give you an error. For example, I just tried this:

~ $ python3.2
>>> variable = str(21)
>>> variable
'21'

Somewhere in your code you're defining that str = something else, masking the builtin definition of str. Remove that and your code will work fine.

Related Solutions

Python – Calling a function of a module by using its name (a string)

Assuming module foo with method bar:

import foo
method_to_call = getattr(foo, 'bar')
result = method_to_call()

You could shorten lines 2 and 3 to:

result = getattr(foo, 'bar')()

if that makes more sense for your use case.

You can use getattr in this fashion on class instance bound methods, module-level methods, class methods... the list goes on.

Python – Convert bytes to a string

You need to decode the bytes object to produce a string:

>>> b"abcde"
b'abcde'

# utf-8 is used here because it is a very common encoding, but you
# need to use the encoding your data is actually in.
>>> b"abcde".decode("utf-8") 
'abcde'

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Python – Calling a function of a module by using its name (a string)

Python – Convert bytes to a string

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