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Rookie question: how to store the price in variable (and not the rest of the information)
Fraser Robinson
posted
API Seeking Help Value

Hi,

I'm trying to do some math operations on the the minute by minute prices of stocks however I'm coming across a weird error. When I run the below code the output is more information than I want;

Code: 

num1 = data.history(stock, 'price', 1, '1m')  
print num1

Output:
2016-06-01 PRINT 2016-05-31 20:00:00+00:00 99.86
Name: Equity(24 [AAPL]), dtype: float64

All I'd really like from the output is the price value (99.86). The rest of the information seems to be causing me issue with the math I do later in my algorithm.

Note: I actually will look further back than 1 minute, and I might have more than a single minute in this variable so I'm expecting to fill an array if I call:

num1 = data.history(stock, 'price', 10, '1m')

2 responses
Nathan Wolfe

Hi Fraser,

When you specify one equity and one field, data.history returns a Pandas Series, which is basically a 1-dimensional array with labels. If you want to get a single value out, you can just index in as you would with a list: 

data.history(stock, 'price', 1, '1m')[0]
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Fraser Robinson

Hi Nathan,

Thanks that's exactly what I'm looking for. I'm a bit of a Python rookie as well!

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The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian.

In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.