Pythonic way to determine if a string is a number

[Paddy]

On Feb 15, 5:46 pm, pyt... at bdurham.com wrote:
> What's the Pythonic way to determine if a string is a number? By
> number I mean a valid integer or float.
>
> I searched the string and cMath libraries for a similar function
> without success. I can think of at least 3 or 4 ways to build my
> own function.
>
> Here's what I came up with as a proof-of-concept. Are there
> 'better' ways to perform this type of test?
>
> Thanks,
> Malcolm
>
> <code>
> def isnumber( input ):
>     try:
>         if '.' in input:
>             num = float( input )
>         else:
>             num = int( input )
>         return True
>
>     except ValueError:
>         return False
>
> if __name__ == '__main__':
>     tests = """
>         12
>         -12
>         -12.34
>         .0
>         .
>         1 2 3
>         1 . 2
>         just text
>     """
>
>     for test in tests.split( '\n' ):
>         print 'test (%0s), isnumber: %1s' % \
>           ( test.strip(), isnumber( test ) )
>
> </code>

Their is a good answer given on Rosetta Code here:
  http://www.rosettacode.org/wiki/IsNumeric#Python

- Paddy.