Question

Very simple question, hopefully. So, in Python you can split up strings using indices as follows:

>>> a="abcdefg"
>>> print a[2:4]
cd

but how do you do this if the indices are based on variables? E.g.

>>> j=2
>>> h=4
>>> print a[j,h]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
TypeError: string indices must be integers

Answer 1

In addition to Bakkal’s answer, here is how to manipulate slices programmatically, which is sometimes convenient:

a = 'abcdefg'
j=2;h=4
my_slice = slice(j,h) # you can pass this object around if you wish

a[my_slice] # -> cd