This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Type Conversion
Sometimes it's necessary to perform conversions between the built-in types. To convert between types you simply use the type name as a function. In addition, several built-in functions are supplied to perform special kinds of conversions. All of these functions return a new object representing the converted value.
|
Function |
Description |
|
int(x [,base]) |
Converts x to an integer. base specifies the base if x is a string. |
|
long(x [,base] ) |
Converts x to a long integer. base specifies the base if x is a string. |
|
float(x) |
Converts x to a floating-point number. |
|
complex(real [,imag]) |
Creates a complex number. |
|
str(x) |
Converts object x to a string representation. |
|
repr(x) |
Converts object x to an expression string. |
|
eval(str) |
Evaluates a string and returns an object. |
|
tuple(s) |
Converts s to a tuple. |
|
list(s) |
Converts s to a list. |
|
set(s) |
Converts s to a set. |
|
dict(d) |
Creates a dictionary. d must be a sequence of (key,value) tuples. |
|
frozenset(s) |
Converts s to a frozen set. |
|
chr(x) |
Converts an integer to a character. |
|
unichr(x) |
Converts an integer to a Unicode character. |
|
ord(x) |
Converts a single character to its integer value. |
|
hex(x) |
Converts an integer to a hexadecimal string. |
|
oct(x) |
Converts an integer to an octal string. |
You also can write the repr(x) function using backquotes as ´x´. Note that the str() and repr() functions may return different results. repr() typically creates an expression string that can be evaluated with eval() to re-create the object. On the other hand, str() produces a concise or nicely formatted representation of the object (and is used by the print statement). The ord() function returns the integer ordinal value for a standard or Unicode character. The chr() and unichr() functions convert integers back into standard or Unicode characters, respectively.
To convert strings back into numbers and other objects, use the int(), long(), and float() functions. The eval() function can also convert a string containing a valid expression to an object. Here's an example:
a = int("34") # a = 34
b = long("0xfe76214", 16) # b = 266822164L (0xfe76214L)
b = float("3.1415926") # b = 3.1415926
c = eval("3, 5, 6") # c = (3,5,6)
In functions that create containers (list(), tuple(), set(), and so on), the argument may be any object that supports iteration that is used to generate all the items used to populate the object that's being created.