Using `assign` with a math filter is correct. [See this thread on GitHub](https://github.com/Shopify/liquid/issues/130#issuecomment-19166529), and [this blog post](http://www.tetchi.ca/liquids-capture-tag-and-numbers/).

[Variables created through `{% capture %}` are strings](http://docs.shopify.com/themes/liquid-documentation/tags/variable-tags#capture). When using `assign`, either of these options should give you a number:

    {% assign var1 = var1 | plus: 0 %}
    {% assign var2 = var2 | times: 1 %}

If this doesn&#39;t work for you, can you post the relevant code?

I&#39;m using Django 1.7. When deploying my site to a Production server and running `collectstatic`, I get following error message:
**`django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The STATICFILES_DIRS setting should not contain the STATIC_ROOT setting`**

I use split settings; my production `local.py` contains:

    STATIC_ROOT = &#39;/home/username/projects/site/static/&#39;

and my `base.py` contains:

    STATICFILES_DIRS = (
        os.path.join(BASE_DIR, &#39;static&#39;),
    )

Collecting staticfiles throws ImproperlyConfigured

**Question**

For example if I wanted to count the number of `N`s in a column of strings how can I do this in Google Spreadsheets at a per cell basis (i.e. a formula that points at one cell at a time that I can drag down)? 

![String/Count table][1]

**Background**

I&#39;m having to decide a threshold `-min-overlap &lt;integer&gt;` for a program called [TOMTOM][2]** which compares similarity between PWMs*** of small DNA motifs****, `N` is a regular expression for any linear combination of the letters A, C, G and T. It would be nice if I could get an idea of the distribution of non-N lengths of my DNA motifs to help inform me of a proper `-min-overlap &lt;integer&gt;` value for TOMTOM.

And here are some real examples:

![enter image description here][3]

** TOMTOM is a tool for comparing a DNA motif to a database of known motifs. See [here][4] for more info.

*** PWM stands for Position Weight Matrix: 

 - [According to Wiki][5]: A position weight matrix (PWM), also known as a position-specific weight matrix (PSWM) or position-specific scoring matrix (PSSM), is a commonly used representation of motifs (patterns) in biological sequences.
 - [According to this paper][7], it could be defined as: 

&gt; Position weight matrix (PWM) or PWM‐like models are widely used to
&gt; represent DNA‐binding preferences of proteins (Stormo, 2000). In these
&gt; models, a matrix is used to represent the TF‐binding site (TFBS), with
&gt; each element representing the contribution to the overall binding
&gt; affinity from a nucleotide at the corresponding position. An inherent
&gt; assumption of traditional PWM models is position independence; that
&gt; is, the contribution of different nucleotide positions within a TFBS
&gt; to the overall binding affinity is assumed to be additive. Although
&gt; this approximation is broadly valid, nevertheless, it does not hold
&gt; for several proteins (Man &amp; Stormo, 2001; Bulyk et al, 2002). To
&gt; improve quantitative modeling, PWM models have been extended to
&gt; include additional parameters, such as k‐mer features, to account for
&gt; position dependencies within TFBSs (Zhao et al, 2012; Mathelier &amp;
&gt; Wasserman, 2013; Mordelet et al, 2013; Weirauch et al, 2013; Riley et
&gt; al, 2015). Interdependencies between nucleotide positions have a
&gt; structural origin. For example, stacking interactions between adjacent
&gt; base pairs form the local three‐dimensional DNA structure. TFs have
&gt; preferences for sequence‐dependent DNA conformation, which we call DNA
&gt; shape readout (Rohs et al, 2009, 2010).

**OR, more contemporarily:**

&gt; Based on this rationale, an alternative approach to augment
&gt; traditional PWM models is the inclusion of DNA structural features.
&gt; Models of TF–DNA binding specificity incorporating these DNA shape
&gt; features achieved comparable performance levels to models
&gt; incorporating higher‐order k‐mer features, while requiring a much
&gt; smaller number of parameters (Zhou et al, 2015). We previously
&gt; revealed the importance of DNA shape readout for members of the basic
&gt; helix‐loop‐helix (bHLH) and homeodomain TF families (Dror et al, 2014;
&gt; Yang et al, 2014; Zhou et al, 2015). We were also able, for Hox TFs,
&gt; to identify which regions in the TFBSs used DNA shape readout,
&gt; demonstrating the power of the approach to reveal mechanistic insights
&gt; into TF–DNA recognition (Abe et al, 2015). This capability was
&gt; extensively shown for only two protein families, due to the lack of
&gt; large‐scale high‐quality TF–DNA binding data. With the recent
&gt; abundance of high‐throughput measurements of protein–DNA binding, it
&gt; is now possible to dissect the role of DNA shape readout for many TF
&gt; families.

**** DNA motif: [wiki][6]: In genetics, a sequence motif is a nucleotide or amino-acid sequence pattern that is widespread and has, or is conjectured to have, a biological significance. For proteins, a sequence motif is distinguished from a structural motif, a motif formed by the three-dimensional arrangement of amino acids, which may not be adjacent.


  [1]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/h8SQV.png
  [2]: http://meme-suite.org/tools/tomtom
  [3]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/7zsVr.png
  [4]: http://meme.nbcr.net/meme/tomtom-intro.html
  [5]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Position_weight_matrix
  [6]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_motif
  [7]: http://msb.embopress.org/content/13/2/910

Count occurrences of given character per cell

I just read this related answer:

[How can I convert a number to a string? - Shopify Design — Ecommerce University][1]

&gt; To convert a string to a number just add 0 to the variable:
&gt; 
&gt;    {% assign variablename = variablename | plus:0 %}
&gt; 
&gt; Not super elegant but it works!

Inelegant or not, the answer given there isn&#39;t working for me. What&#39;s the right way to do this?

Are the Liquid docs really missing such basic answers or am I just not finding the right place to look?


  [1]: https://ecommerce.shopify.com/c/ecommerce-design/t/how-can-i-convert-a-number-to-a-string-185373

Convert string to integer in Shopify Liquid?

I just read this related answer:
<a href="https://ecommerce.shopify.com/c/ecommerce-design/t/how-can-i-convert-a-number-to-a-string-185373" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How can I convert a number to a string? - Shopify Design — Ecommerce University</a>
> To convert a string to a number just add 0 to the variable:
>
> {% assign variablename = variablename | plus:0 %}
>
> Not super elegant but it works!
Inelegant or not, the answer given there isn't working for me. What's the right way to do this?
Are the Liquid docs really missing such basic answers or am I just not finding the right place to look?

How slow is using type assertions / type switches in Go, as a method of run-time type discovery?

I&#39;ve heard that in C/C++ for example, discovering types at run time has bad performance. To bypass that, you usually add type members to classes, so you can compare against these instead of casting.

I haven&#39;t found a clear answer for this throughout the www.

Here&#39;s an example of what I&#39;m asking about - Is this considered *fast* when compared to other type checking methodologies (like mentioned above, or others I&#39;m not aware of)?

    func question(anything interface{}) {
        switch v := anything.(type) {
            case string:
                fmt.Println(v)
            case int32, int64:
                fmt.Println(v)
            case SomeCustomType:
                fmt.Println(v)
            default:
                fmt.Println(&quot;unknown&quot;)
        }
    }

Does a type assertion / type switch have bad performance / is slow in Go?

Using PostgreSQL 9.3, I want to convert the calculated values to data type `float`.

My first attempt:

    SELECT float(SUM(Seconds))/-1323 AS Averag;

Gives me this error:

&gt;     syntax error at or near &quot;SUM&quot;

My second attempt:

    SELECT to_float(SUM(Seconds))/-1323 AS Averag;

Gives me this error:

&gt;      function to_float(bigint) does not exist


Cast syntax to convert a sum to float

I have read in an XML email attachment with

    bytes_string=part.get_payload(decode=False)

The payload comes in as a byte string, as my variable name suggests.

I am trying to use the recommended Python 3 approach to turn this string into a usable string that I can manipulate.

The example shows:

&gt;     str(b&#39;abc&#39;,&#39;utf-8&#39;)

How can I apply the `b` (bytes) keyword argument to my variable `bytes_string` and use the recommended approach?

The way I tried doesn&#39;t work:

    str(bbytes_string, &#39;utf-8&#39;)

How do I convert a Python 3 byte-string variable into a regular string?

`paxPayment, ok = dataObject.(*entities.PassengerPayment)`

What are the brackets used for? I&#39;m not sure what is going on in this assignment operation.

Do you need any more details to answer this question?

Is this casting in golang?

I need to convert a `Decimal` value to `float` in Python. Is there any method available for this type conversion?

How to do Decimal to float conversion in Python?

My server threw this today, which is a Node.js error I&#39;ve never seen before:

    Error: getaddrinfo EAI_AGAIN my-store.myshopify.com:443
        at Object.exports._errnoException (util.js:870:11)
        at errnoException (dns.js:32:15)
        at GetAddrInfoReqWrap.onlookup [as oncomplete] (dns.js:78:26)

I&#39;m wondering if this is related to the DynDns DDOS attack which affected Shopify and many other services today. [Here&#39;s an article about that.](http://thenextweb.com/security/2016/10/21/massive-ddos-attack-dyn-dns-causing-havoc-online/)

My main question is what does `dns.js` do? What part of node is it a part of? How can I recreate this error with a different domain?

What&#39;s the cause of the error &#39;getaddrinfo EAI_AGAIN&#39;?

When calling items from an array in a Liquid template, how do you call `does not contain` or `not in array`?


Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	MountainX	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Type Conversion	Steph Sharp	View Answer on Stackoverflow

Convert string to integer in Shopify Liquid?

Type Conversion Problem Overview

Type Conversion Solutions

Solution 1 - Type Conversion

Count occurrences of given character per cell

Collecting staticfiles throws ImproperlyConfigured

Attributions