Convert a list of strings to either int or float

Question

I have a list which looks something like this:

[\'1\', \'2\', \'3.4\', \'5.6\', \'7.8\']

How do I change the first two to int

Answer 1

Use a helper function:

def int_or_float(s):
    try:
        return int(s)
    except ValueError:
        return float(s)

Then use a list comprehension to apply the function:

[int_or_float(el) for el in lst]