Question

Trying to pass a string argument to a function, which will then be used as a variable throughout the function. For some reason, when I am trying to do this, it isn’t working. What am I doing wrong?

import subprocess
def printerSetup(printer):
    subprocess.call(r'Cscript c:/windows/System32/Printing_Admin_Scripts/en-US/Prnport.vbs -a -r "'printer'.print.web.com" -h "' + printer + '.print.web.com" -o raw')
    if printer == 'saturn' or printer == 'jupiter' or printer == 'neptune':
        subprocess.call(r'rundll32 printui.dll, PrintUIEntry /if /b "' + printer + '" /f w:\printers\toshibae3511\eng\est_c2.inf /r "' + printer + '.print.web.com" /m "TOSHIBA e-STUDIO Color PS3"')
    if printer == 'mercury':
        subprocess.call(r'rundll32 printui.dll, PrintUIEntry /if /b "' + printer + '" /f w:\printers\dell1720\drivers\print\dell1720\DKABJ740.inf /r "' + printer + '.print.web.com" /m "Dell Laser Printer 1720dn"')

printerSetup("neptune")
printerSetup("mercury")

Edited the program. After trying to run this new one, get this error:

C:\Python27\Projects\Printer Setup>c:\python27\python.exe saturn.py
  File "saturn.py", line 3
    subprocess.call(r'Cscript c:/windows/System32/Printing_Admin_Scripts/en-US/P
rnport.vbs -a -r "'printer'.print.web.com" -h "' + printer + '.print.web.c
om" -o raw')

                         ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Answer 1

You need to specify variable == value for each or statement, like so:

if printer == 'saturn' or printer == 'jupiter' or printer == 'neptune':

You also forgot the trailing colon on each if statement.

If you want to say “does this variable match this list of values?”, the following might be cleaner for you:

if printer in ('saturn', 'jupiter', 'neptune'):

You also need to add variables to strings – you can’t just place them adjacent:

'string' + variable + 'string'

 # not

 'string'variable'string'