MRAB, > Does myString[myTuple[0] : myTuple[1]] count as unpacking?
I'm not sure my use of the term 'unpacking' was totally correct, but, yes, that's what I was hoping to avoid with a simpler solution. > then how about myString.__getslice__(*myTuple)? Very interesting. I'm going to try Ben's slice() object suggestion. Thanks for your help, Malcolm -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list