flagg wrote:
I am still fairly new to python and programming in general. My
question is regarding data conversion, I am working on a script that
will edit dns zone files, one of the functions i wrote handles
updating the serial number.
Our zone files use the date as the first part of the serial and a two
digit integer as the last two.
i.e. 2009011501. The next update would be 2009011502, etc
Here is the function I wrote, I am using dnspython for reading in zone
files as Zone "objects". Because dnspython's built-in serial updater
will not work with how we format our serial's, I have to re-write it.
def checkSerial():
"""
Checks the current 'date' portion of the serial number and
checks the current 'counter'(the two digit number at the end of
the serial number), then returns a complete new serial
"""
currentDate = time.strftime("%Y""%m""%d", time.localtime())
for (name, ttl, rdata) in zone.iterate_rdatas(SOA):
date = str(rdata.serial)[0:8]
inc = str(rdata.serial)[8:10]
If rdate.serial is already a string, as name would imply, the str() call
is pointless. If not, can you get inc as int more directly?
if date == currentDate:
int(inc) + 1
print inc
newInc = str(inc).zfill(2)
serial = date + newInc
print "date is the same"
return serial
elif date < currentDate:
newInc = "01".zfill(2)
serial = currentDate + newInc
print "date is different"
return serial
Through all of this I am doing a lot of data type conversion. string -
integer, integer back to string, etc. Is this an efficient way of
handling this? I have to perform basic addition on the "inc"
variable, but also need to expose that value as a string. What I
have above does work, but I can't help but think there is a more
efficient way. I guess I am not used to data types being converted so
easily.
Other than that, you are perhaps worrying too much, even if code could
be squeezed more. The idea that every object knows how to convert
itself to a string representation is basic to Python.
tjr
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