Problem with updating object names in Maya Python

Question

For my scripting class, I have been working on a Maya Python script that create control curves. The script works when I create the first and second object. But if I create more objects with the same name, the name is not working like I want it to work. Right now, the object names go as follow: PREF_NAME_SUF, PREF_NAME_SUF1, PREF_NAME_SUF11, PREF_NAME_SUF111, etc.

How would I make it PREF_NAME_SUF, PREF_NAME_SUF1, PREF_NAME_SUF2, PREF_NAME_SUF3, etc?

This is what I have at the moment:

    def createCurves(controlName):
        if cmds.objExists(curveObject):
            print("Warning: This name already exists.")
            oldCurveObject = curveObject
            print oldCurveObject, curveObject
            for i in range(1):
                i = i+1
                print controlName + str(i)
                controlName = oldCurveObject + str(i)

Answer 1

you can use the module re to extract the name.

import re

controlName = 'PREF_NAME_SUF1'

pattern = re.compile('\d+$') # finish by a number

r = pattern.search(controlName) # we search the string, if there is no result, we will do special operations

if r:
    new_number = str(int(r.group(0)) + 1) # from our search we extract the number
    new_name = pattern.sub(new_number, controlName) # we replace the end number by the new one
else:
    if cmds.objExists(controlName):
        # if the control exists already we append 1 to the name
        new_name = controlName + '1'
    else:
        # if it doesn't exists, we dont add an iteration number
        new_name = controlName

_____ EDIT _________

you don&t really understand how naming your control is done. you need to generate your three names together otherwise you create duplicated names letting maya doing it wrongly. Also try to remove debugging prints and also maybe remove globals and use more return

def createCurves(controlName):

    # if the control exists already we append 1 to the name
    name_pattern = re.compile( controlName + '(\d+)?$') # it doesn mean your ControlName can have a number but it is not mandatory
    tr = cmds.ls(type='transform') # we list all transform
    number_finder = [name_pattern.findall(i)[0] for i in tr if name_pattern.findall(i)] # we find if the name already exists
    # if we find something, we work on the iteration 
    if number_finder:
        last_number = sorted(number_finder)[-1]
        if last_number != '':
            new_number = str(int(last_number) + 1)
        else:
            new_number = '1'
    else:
        # if nothing we don&t need to iterate
        new_number = ''
    
    new_name = controlName + new_number

    new_offname = controlName + ccOFFName + new_number
    new_grpname = controlName + ccGRPName + new_number   
    
    #create the curve according to which shape is selected
    if (selectedShapeValue == 'Circle'):
        created_curve, createNode = cmds.circle(n= new_name)
    
    if (selectedShapeValue == 'Square'):
        created_curve = cmds.curve(n= new_name, d = 1, p = [(-1, 0, 1),(-1, 0, -1), (1, 0, -1),(1, 0, 1),(-1, 0, 1)], k = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4])
    
    if ccOFFcheck:
        cc_OFF = cmds.group(created_curve, n = new_offname)
        
    if ccGRPcheck:
        cc_GRP = cmds.group(cc_OFF, n = new_grpname)
        
        
    return new_name

in this piece of code I generate the name based on one assumption : your control name dependencies must be unique Also now you generate the three names with the iteration number at the end.