Numbers in SQL statements

[Nick Collier]

Hi,

I've been creating SQL statements from dictionaries holding the field
name and the new value to insert or update. As might be expected this
new value is often a number. When turning this number into a string in
order to create the sql statement the number will have a "L" appended if
it is a long. Consequently, the resulting SQL might look like the
following:

update myTable
set id_num = 23L
where food = 'spam'

I've been testing if the value is a number whose string representation
ends with "L" and then stripping the "L", but am pretty sure there must
be a better way. If so, any suggestions as to what is?

thanks,

Nick
-- 

Nick Collier
nick at src.uchicago.edu
Social Science Research Computing
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL 60637