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From: Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 00:22:47 -0600
Subject: Re: how to check if a value is a floating point or not
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On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 12:14 AM, Nicholas Cannon
<nicholascannon1@gmail.com> wrote:
> Guys i am only a beginner at python most of the stuff you are saying i need to do i dont understand.

All we're saying is that the simplest and most accurate way to
determine whether a string can be converted to an int or a float is to
try converting it and see if it succeeds.  If it fails, it will raise
an exception that you can catch using the try-except syntax.  Here's
what your checkint function might look like:

    def checkint(a):
        try:
            int(a)
        except ValueError:
            return False
        else:
            return True