Question

So basically, let’s say you define a function and then write something in () brackets after then function. If I write function(gay), it ends up as ‘error name not defined’ Python2.73

def lenRecur(aStr):
    '''
    aStr: a string

    returns: int, the length of aStr
    '''
    print type(aStr)
    return

def lenRecur2(aStr):
    '''
    aStr: a string

    returns: int, the length of aStr
    '''
    s = str(aStr)
    print type(s)
    return

So when I type lenRecur(gay) or lenRecur2(gay), it ends up as an error whatever I do. So is there a way to avoid it? Without using “” quote marks.

Answer 1

No – unless your input is already a variable that holds a string (or another object).

However, you could use a try-except block (but it won’t actually do anything if there’s an error).

try:
    lenRecur(foo)
    lenRecur2(foo)
except NameError:
    pass