check to see if value can be an integer instead of string

[Claudio Grondi]

nephish at xit.net wrote:
> Hello there,
> i need a way to check to see if a certain value can be an integer. I
> have looked at is int(), but what is comming out is a string that may
> be an integer. i mean, it will be formatted as a string, but i need to
> know if it is possible to be expressed as an integer.
> 
> like this
> 
> var = some var passed to my script
> if var can be an integer :
>     do this
> else:
>     change it to an integer and do something else with it.
> 
> whats the best way to do this ?
> 
> thanks, shawn
> 
No idea whats the best way to do and what in detail you want to achieve, 
but before others reply here, you can maybe start with something like this:

intTheInt = None

def checkIfStringCanBeAnInteger(strWithInt):
   global intTheInt
   try:
     intTheInt = int(strWithInt)
     if(type(intTheInt)==type(1)):
       return True
   except:
     return False
#:def

lstTestCases = [
   '123', '789' , 'no', '1is2'
]

for strWithInt in lstTestCases:
   intTheInt = None
   if checkIfStringCanBeAnInteger(strWithInt):
     print '"'+strWithInt+'"', ' is an integer', intTheInt
   else:
     print '"'+strWithInt+'"', ' is NOT an integer'


Claudio