how to fix self create module not working - python-3.x

Question

My self made module is not returning an expected result( I want to input ABC and get back 123, But it is not doing that)
I am doing this to learn how to do this and so I can make my code look cleaner.(I am trying to make a very complicated message encoder and this is my first step)
def counter(key):
length = len(key)
counting = 0
word = []
try:
while length != counting:
if key[counting] == 'A' or 'a' :
word += '1'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'B' or 'b' :
word += '2'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'C' or 'c' :
word += '3'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'D' or 'd' :
word += '4'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'E' or 'e' :
word += '5'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'F' or 'f' :
word += '6'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'G' or 'g' :
word += '7'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'H' or 'h' :
word += '8'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'I' or 'i' :
word += '9'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'J' or 'j' :
word += '10'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'K' or 'k' :
word += '11'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'L' or 'l' :
word += '12'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'M' or 'm' :
word += '13'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'N' or 'n' :
word += '14'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'O' or 'o' :
word += '15'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'P' or 'p' :
word += '16'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'Q' or 'q' :
word += '17'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'R' or 'r' :
word += '18'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'S' or 's' :
word += '19'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'T' or 't' :
word += '20'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'U' or 'u' :
word += '21'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'V' or 'v' :
word += '22'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'W' or 'w' :
word += '23'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'X' or 'x' :
word += '24'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'Y' or 'y' :
word += '25'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == 'Z' or 'z' :
word += '26'
counting += 1
if key[counting] == ' ' :
word += '#'
counting += 1
finally:
return word
I want this module to let you input any phrase and convert the letters to numbers(A = 1, B =2, C = 3, etc.) and return the phrase back translated in numbers.
( I am not importing wrong)
To test I imputed 'Hello I am Sam' and I got back
['1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '1', '0', '1', '1', '1', '2', '1', '3', '1', '4'] This is obviously not right, so what is the problem.
This is the way my import looks
import random
from h import counter
key = "Hello I am Sam"
keyascii = counter(key)
print(key)
print(keyascii)

Answer 1

I am using ord to get the integer representation, and subtracting it with 64 to get the integer equivalent you specified in your code.
I am converting each character into uppercase, since you want both A and a to be 1, B and b to be 2 and so on. I am appending a whitespace character as it is
def counter(s):
result = ''
for c in s:
if c != ' ':
result += str(ord(c.upper())-64)
else:
result += ' '
return result
print(counter('ABC'))
print(counter('Hello I am Sam'))
#123
#85121215 9 113 19113