Question

argc = len(sys.argv)

if (argc < 3 or argc > 5):
    printusage()
    sys.exit()

insensitive = 1 if ("-i" in sys.argv) else 0
boundaries = 1 if ("-b" in sys.argv) else 0

filename = sys.argv[argc-2]
str = sys.argv[argc-1]

print "Looking for '", str , "' in '" , filename , "'"

The output is

python count_words.py -b -i football.txt goal

Looking for ‘ goal ‘ in ‘ football.txt ‘

Why is there a space before and after ‘goal’ and ‘football.txt’ ? When I try to print the str and filename variable by themselves, they don’t have these spaces.

I’ve also tried using str.strip() in the print, but to no effect.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

The space is not in sys.argv, it is caused by the use of commas when printing. Try

print "Looking for '%s' in '%s'" % (str, filename)

And try to avoid shadowing the builtin str.