Neal Becker, 10.09.2010 20:23: > IN [3]: bool('False') > Out[3]: True Not inconsistent at all: >>> bool('false') True >>> bool('true') True >>> bool('') False >>> bool(32) True >>> bool(0) False It simply follows Python's boolean coercion rules. If you consider it inconsisten w.r.t. int('32'), then what about >>> list('[]') ['[', ']'] Stefan