#
# python/examples/ValIntStr1.py
#
# Examples of the functions int, and str
# (I thought that a function val existed that returned the values of the string characters

def bin2dec(a):
    """
    Convert a string (a) to decimal
    >> bin2dec('1001')
    9
    """
    answer=0
    for x in val(a):
       answer = answer * 2
       answer += x
    return answer

# Example by David MacKay www.aims.ac.za/~mackay/