Best way to check if string is an integer?

[Roy Smith]

In article <mailman.2927.1207447793.9267.python-list at python.org>,
 Steve Holden <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:

> > This doesn't cater for negative integers.
> > 
> No, it doesn't, but
> 
> s.isdigit() or (s[0] in "+-" and s[1:].isdigit) # untested
> 
> does.

I think this fails on "   -1".  So, then you start doing 
s.strip().isdigit(), and then somebody else comes up with some other 
unexpected corner case...

int(s) and catching any exception thrown just sounds like the best way.