How do I convert a list of strings in a list composed of ints and floats to both ints and floats?

Question

For example, I have the list ['-1','9','7.8'] How do I convert the list to [-1,9,7.8] without having to choose between converting all to a float or all to an integer?

Answer 1

You can use list comprehension and ternary operator to do this

lst =['-1','9','7.8']
lst = [float(numStr) if '.' in numStr else int(numStr) for numStr in lst ]

Answer 2

Here 2 simple solutions

# 1 Just convert to float.
print([float(i) for i in ['-1','9','7.8']])


# 2 Check if are dotted
convert = [float(i) if '.' in i else int(i) for i in ['-1','9','7.8']]
print(convert)

The first would work because a integer can be always converted to float. But if you really need to have the 2 differentiated then just check if are dotted.

**Solution 3 **

"Ask forgiveness not permission" just try to convert it to a int, if it fails then to a float

def int_float_converter(data):

    converted_data = []
    for d in data:
        val = None
        try:
            val = int(d)
        except ValueError:
            val = float(d)
        finally:
            if val:
                converted_data.append(val)
    return converted_data

converted = int_float_converter(['-1','9','7.8'])
print(converted)
# [-1, 9, 7.8]

Answer 3

int(x) if int(x) == float(x) else float(x)

is a useful way of deciding if a string is integer or float