python: casting to upper and finding string

Question

i am getting stuck on this line:

row[1].upper().find('CELEBREX',1) (this is returning -1)

it seems to not find CELEBREX even though it is there

row[1] = 'celebrex, TRAMADOL'

am i casting to UPPER incorrectly?

Answer 1

The second argument of find() shouldn't be 1, because it will start search after the first character of the string.

>>> s = 'celebrex, TRAMADOL'
>>> print s.upper().find('CELEBREX')
0

Find() will return 0 because it found the first match at position 0, the first position in the string. So it's important to note that, as you've already discovered, the if find() doesn't find the string, it will return -1. Return value 0 is actually a match.

Answer 2

upper() seems fine, but find doesn't. You want to find at the start of the string (not offset).

row[1].upper().find('CELEBREX')

Answer 3

You are starting search from second letter 1 which is e:

row=("",'celebrex, TRAMADOL')
print row[1].upper().find('CELEBREX',1)
print row[1][1:]
"""Output:
-1
elebrex, TRAMADOL
"""