Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!gegeweb.org!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx04.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Pete Forman Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Subject: Re: LBYL vs EAFP Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:49:06 +0000 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 13 Message-ID: <867gmnjdkd.fsf@gmail.com> References: <5110415c$0$29986$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <51109001$0$21856$c3e8da3$76491128@news.astraweb.com> <5110a73a$0$21856$c3e8da3$76491128@news.astraweb.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: mx04.eternal-september.org; posting-host="cdf6132ee4c43c2d1457a368e89c85c9"; logging-data="17152"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/3Ehhy9VZg6mFuypDSFB+R" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.2 (windows-nt) Cancel-Lock: sha1:BWsCjX1AJ5EOtI3xwudldIumegg= sha1:GWNrEEYeizflTpZ2ee1bq6BhlQE= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:38178 Steven D'Aprano writes: >> I want to check that a value is a number. [...] > I'm leaning towards an isinstance check Well that is the answer to your question, whether the value *is* a number. EAFP can answer the question whether the value *behaves* like a number, where the criterion depends on what your code is aiming to do with the value. BTW what if the value is Not-a-Number? ;-) -- Pete Forman