check if var is dict

[Jeff McNeil]

You could use 'isinstance' to determine whether or not your object is
an instance of a particular class.

>>> isinstance({}, dict)
True
>>> isinstance("", basestring)
True
>>>

Note the use of 'basestring', which will catch unicode as well.

-Jeff

On 8/13/07, Astan Chee <stanc at al.com.au> wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a variable, I want to check if it is a dictionary or a string.
> Is there any better way to do this than I've done. How I did it is by
> doing a .items() and catching a AttributeError that it raises if its not
> a dictionary.
> How do i properly do it?
> Thanks
> Astan
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