How to convert a string (with non-digit place value separators) into an integer?
Question: 
    price = '20,355' 
    

This is a python string variable. How do I convert it into an integer
variable?

For example:

    
    
    price = 20355 
    


Answer: This is my prefered way to convert strings with place-value separators to
integers:

    
    
    >>> import locale
    >>> price = '20,355'
    >>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_NUMERIC, '')  # Or any other appropriate locale.
    'English_United Kingdom.1252'
    >>> locale.atoi(price)
    20355
    

This is better than just replacing commas with empty-strings, because in some
locales commas are used as decimal separators, while periods play the part of
delimiting the thousands, millions etc.

