How to prevent Python from removing the leading zeroes in "0005"

Question

I want to create a list of numbers from 00000 to 99999, and I want to save it in a file. But the problem is that Python removes the leading zeroes, making 00000 just 0. Here's my code.

f=open("numbers","w")
x=00000
y=99999
while y>=x:
    zzz=str(x)+'\n'
    f.write(zzz)
    x=x+1

I want to save these numbers like this:

00000 00001 00002 And so on...

I am new to Python and I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

check out this post http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2389846/python-decimals-format — LWZ, Feb 24 '13 at 07:20
Leading zeros are insignificant to a *number*: `0` = `000` = `00000` even though they have different *textual* representations. Check the duplicate question(s). (Sometimes a leading zero indicates octal, but that is tangental.) — , Feb 24 '13 at 07:27

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 24 '13 at 07:21

4

Just use format:

>>> print('{:05}'.format(1))
00001

answered Feb 24 '13 at 07:21

dawg

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score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 24 '13 at 07:21

3

The third possibility is zfill:

str(x).zfill(5)

answered Feb 24 '13 at 07:21

agf

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 24 '13 at 07:20

2

Use '%05d' % x instead of str(x).

answered Feb 24 '13 at 07:20

Keith Randall

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http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting – agf Feb 24 '13 at 07:24

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 24 '13 at 07:31

x=000 and x=0 are stored exactly the same way...as the integer zero. What you want is to print strings formatted the way you require. Here's what you are looking for:

Here's what you are looking for:

with open('numbers','w') as f:          # open a file (automatically closes)
    for x in range(10000):              # x = 0 to 9999
        f.write('{:05}\n'.format(x))    # write as a string field formatted as width 5 and leading zeros, and a newline character.

How to prevent Python from removing the leading zeroes in "0005"

4 Answers4