# system.opc.readValues

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-opc-readvalues/5446>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [November 19, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-opc-readvalues/5446 "2012-11-19T23:23:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![njsd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/54ee81/32.png) [@njsd](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/njsd)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-opc-readvalues/5446/1 "2012-11-19T23:23:56Z")

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Hello,

I am reading through a RXLinx Gateway to a SLC 5/04. I want to read 5 ASCII file locations to come up with a 10 character serial number string. Here is the code:

```auto
import system
opc_server = "S90P"

SerialNumberList = []
for i in range(5):
	name = "[CP3_OPC]A212:6%s" % i
	SerialNumberList.append(system.opc.readValue(opc_server, name).value)
SerialNumber = "".join(SerialNumberList)

print SerialNumberList
print SerialNumber
```

This is headed to the right place and returning the right values, but there is also a strange "u" involved. printed value:

> [@](#):
>
> [u'A1', u'24', u'61', u'86', u'78']  
> u'A124618678'

What I'd like to return is simply the string 'A124618678'. I'm sure there's a very simple explanation, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Travis.Cox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Travis.Cox](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Travis.Cox)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-opc-readvalues/5446/2 "2012-11-19T23:31:38Z")

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That will only show up in the console. It means the string is unicode. You won’t see that if you write it to a tag or to a database.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![njsd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/54ee81/32.png) [@njsd](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/njsd)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-opc-readvalues/5446/3 "2012-11-19T23:32:08Z")

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Thanks!