Question

I’m trying to turn an inputted user name (Rex Ryan) into a 6 character name (ryanre) and change that to a numbered ID (A=01, B=02, …, Z=26).

I’ve made an attempt at converting a full name into a 6 character name with this:

def converter():
    first = raw_input('What is the first name of the user? ')
    last = raw_input('What is the last name of the user? ')
    first[0:2] = firstname
    last[0:4] = lastname
    user = lastname + firstname
    print user

I keep getting “firstname is not defined” when I run it. Any direction or reading would be helpful; I’d like to do this mostly on my own. If I wanted it written for me I could just download something.

Answer 1

You have your statements backward:

firstname = first[0:2]

As far as converting the return value to a sequence of numbers, have a look at ord. It will perform the mapping that you’re describing.