How do I parse a string to a float or int?

Question

In Python, how can I parse a numeric string like \"545.2222\" to its corresponding float value, 545.2222? Or parse the string \"31\" t

Answer 1

The question seems a little bit old. But let me suggest a function, parseStr, which makes something similar, that is, returns integer or float and if a given ASCII string cannot be converted to none of them it returns it untouched. The code of course might be adjusted to do only what you want:

   >>> import string
   >>> parseStr = lambda x: x.isalpha() and x or x.isdigit() and \
   ...                      int(x) or x.isalnum() and x or \
   ...                      len(set(string.punctuation).intersection(x)) == 1 and \
   ...                      x.count('.') == 1 and float(x) or x
   >>> parseStr('123')
   123
   >>> parseStr('123.3')
   123.3
   >>> parseStr('3HC1')
   '3HC1'
   >>> parseStr('12.e5')
   1200000.0
   >>> parseStr('12$5')
   '12$5'
   >>> parseStr('12.2.2')
   '12.2.2'