>>> S = 'spam'
>>> for c in S:
...     print ord(c)
...
115
112
97
109

>>> x = 0
>>> for c in S: x = x + ord(c)
...
>>> x
433

>>> x = []
>>> for c in S: x.append(ord(c))
...
>>> x
[115, 112, 97, 109]

>>> map(ord, S)
[115, 112, 97, 109]