How to retain leading zeros of int variables?

Solution 1:

Though the comments above are true regarding 1, 01, and 001, are all the same as an int, it can be very helpful in temporal modeling, or sequential movie making to maintain the leading zeros. I do it often to ensure movie clips are in proper order. The easy way to do that is using zfill() to ensure the str version of the number has at least the number of characters you tell it, and does so by filling in the left-side of the string "number" with zeros.

>>> x = int(1)    
>>> NewStringVariable = str(x).zfill(3)    
>>> print NewStringVariable    
001    
>>> NewStringVariable = str(x).zfill(5)    
>>> print NewStringVariable    
00001

Solution 2:

The concept of leading zeros is a display concept, not a numerical one. You can put an infinite number of leading zeros on a number without changing its value. Since it's not a numeric concept, it's not stored with the number.

You have to decide how many zeros you want when you convert the number to a string. You could keep that number separately if you want.