Question

I have some XML tagged string as follows.

<Processor>AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ 2.31 GHz</Processor>
<ClockSpeed>2.31</ClockSpeed>
<NumberOfCores>2</NumberOfCores>
<InstalledMemory>2.00</InstalledMemory>
<OperatingSystem>Windows 7 Professional</OperatingSystem>

How can I detect the data type automatically using python?
For example, “AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ 2.31 GHz” -> string, “2.31” -> float, and on.

I need this functionality as I need to make SQLite Table out of the XML data something like

CREATE table ABC (Processor string, ClockSpeed float ... )

Answer 1

One possibility is to try various types in precise sequence, defaulting to str if none of those work. E.g.:

def what_type(s, possible_types=((int, [0]), (float, ()))):
    for t, xargs in possible_types:
        try: t(s, *xargs)
        except ValueError: pass
        else: return t
    return str

This is particularly advisable, of course, when you to use want exactly the same syntax conventions as Python — e.g., accept '0x7e' as int as well as '126', and so on. If you need different syntax conventions, then you should instead perform parsing on string s, whether via REs or by other means.