How to send negative value arguments for command line application?

[jacob l]

I have created a piece of python code; however, I want to execute it from the command line with some arguments and options. What I have so far works ok (with the exception that i CANNOT enter in negative values for the arguments -- and i need to be able to!) How can i better write this code?

What i enter on the command line:

C:\...>mycode.py arg1 arg2 arg3 -o filename -p filename -q filename (this is 3 arguments and 3 options)

What my code does (works with exception of negatives):

import sys
parser=optparse.OptionParser()

parser.add_option("--value1",dest"val1")
parser.add_option("--value2",dest"val2")
parser.add_option("--value3",dest"val3")

parser.add_option("-o",action="store",type="string",dest="opt1")
parser.add_option("-p",action="store",type="string",dest="opt2")
parser.add_option("-q",action="store",type="string",dest="opt3")

opts,args=parser.parse_args()


Help with this please...Again, I want to correctly do the arguments and options on the command line and be able to input negative values for an argument if needed. Again, what i have works (except for negative values)....anyone know a better way?

[dwblas]

AFAIK there is no way to tell the difference between an option and a negative number, so you would have to either assume that non-options are negative numbers, or check with isdigit(), or come up with something like -neg and then the negative number.

[dwblas]

If you come up with a good solution to this please post it as this is something that comes up from time to time.