This is what I want to do. I have a list of gene names for example: [ITGB1, RELA, NFKBIA] Looking up the help in biopython and tutorial for API for entrez I came up with this:

x = ['ITGB1', 'RELA', 'NFKBIA']
for item in x:
    handle = Entrez.efetch(db="nucleotide", id=item ,rettype="gb")
    record = handle.read()
    out_handle = open('genes/'+item+'.xml', 'w') #to create a file with gene name
    out_handle.write(record)
    out_handle.close

But this keeps erroring out. I have discovered that if the id is a numerical id (although you have to make it in to a string to use, '186972394' so:

handle = Entrez.efetch(db="nucleotide", id='186972394' ,rettype="gb")

This gets me the info I want which includes the sequence.

So now to the Question:

How can I search gene names (cause I do not have id numbers) or easily convert my gene names to ids to get the sequences for the gene list I have.

I have also tried:

x = 'RELA'

handle = Entrez.efetch(db="nucleotide", id=x ,rettype="gb")

errors our HTTP Error 400: Bad Request because it is expecting a string of a number for id

handle = Entrez.esearch(db="nucleotide",term=x)

returns nothing,.. debugging shows it did not find anything

handle =  Entrez.esearch(db="nucleotide",term="Homo[Orgn] AND RELA[Gene]")

returns a list of IDS, and the first one is what I want but if I do this, I am sure you will not like it because it does not guarantee that the ID is actually what I want and not just the first of IDs in a list every time I query the search engine.

Thx