Weirdness calling str() to convert integer to string in Python 3?

Question

Why is this giving me an error?

>>> variable = str(21)

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#101>", line 1, in <module>
    variable = str(21)
TypeError: 'str' object is not callable

Solution 1

That code alone won't give you an error. For example, I just tried this:

~ $ python3.2
>>> variable = str(21)
>>> variable
'21'

Somewhere in your code you're defining that str = something else, masking the builtin definition of str. Remove that and your code will work fine.

Solution 2

Because you've probably overwritten the str function by calling your own variable str.

Comments

[Wooble]

did you name a variable "str"?

[mouad]

Did you define another string variable and assign it to a variable str ? because doing so you end up shadowing the builtin function str() e.g: str = 'test'; print(str(124)).

[smci]

The downvotes are misplaced. Most of us have shadowed builtins, when learning. Look how many code examples out there with list = [...]. I updated the title of this question.

[blueplastic]

I think you might be right. I closed out of my IDLE session (which had a lot of earlier code samples I found online loaded), and now I can use the built-in str function properly. One of those earlier code samples must have done something quirky to the BIF str(). Thanks!