[Tutor] Getting the type of a variable

[Kent Johnson]

Etrade Griffiths wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I want to check the type of a variable so that I know which format to use 
> for printing eg
> 
> def print_correct_format(a):
> 
> 	if type(a) == 'int':
> 		print "a is an integer, value %i" % (a)
> 	elif type(a) == 'float':
> 		print "a is a float, value %f" % (a)
> 	else:
> 		print "a is unknown type"
> 
> The comparison type(a) == 'int' etc does not work - I'm sure there's a 
> simple way to fix this but can't see it at the moment - any suggestions?

You need to compare to the actual type, not the name of the type:
   if type(a) == int:
or
   if type(a) == float:

You could also use
   if isinstance(a, int):
which will succeed if a is an instance of a subclass of int as well.

Kent