On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 9:03 AM, Mike Driscoll <kyoso...@gmail.com> wrote: > - Show quoted text - > On Mar 3, 10:57 am, Oltmans <rolf.oltm...@gmail.com> wrote: >> I'm reading from a file that contains text like >> >> ---- >> 5 >> google_company >> apple_fruit >> pencil_object >> 4 >> test_one >> tst_two >> ---- >> >> When I read the integer 5 I want to make sure it's an integer. >> Likewise, for strings, I want to make sure if something is indeed a >> string. So how do I check types in Python? I want to check following >> types >> >> 1- integers >> 2- strings >> 3- testing types of a particular class >> 4- decimal/floats >> >> Please excuse my ignorance & enlighten me. I will really appreciate >> any help. >> >> Thanks, >> Oltmans > > I think when you're reading from a file, it will just read each line > as a string. So you'd probably need to either try casting the line > into something else and catch it in an exception handler or use eval. > > The normal way to check types is to use the keyword isinstance or just > use the "type" keyword.
isinstance() and type() are callables, *not* keywords; and IMHO, type() should never be used for typechecking (ironically), since such checks are always written more clearly using isinstance(). Cheers, Chris -- I have a blog: http://blog.rebertia.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list