Using the result of type() in a boolean statement?

[Scott David Daniels]

dpapathanasiou wrote:
> ... I'd like to define a loop like this, ...
> for key, value in my_dict.items():
>   if type{value) is <type 'dict'>:
>     # do the dictionary logic
>   elif type(value) is <type 'str'>:
>     # do the string logic
>   # etc

You're searching for "isinstance" (or possibly issubclass)
   for key, value in my_dict.items():
     if isinstance(value, dict):
       # do the dictionary logic
     elif isinstance(value, str): # use basestring for str & unicode
       # do the string logic

Or, if you _must_ use type:
     if issubclass(type(value), dict):
       # do the dictionary logic
     elif issubclass(type(value), str):
       # do the string logic


--Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org