Python Lists input- Integers and Strings

Question

Is there any way in python where the elements of the list don't get changed.

For eg, integers must remain integers and string must remain string, but this should be done in same program.

The sample code would be:

print("Enter the size of the list:")
N = int(input())
for x in range(N):
    x = input("")    
    the_list.append(x)
    the_list.sort()

print(the_list)

Result: the_list = ['1','2','3']

is the list of integers where integers have converted to strings which is wrong.

But strings of list must remain strings.

"Being generated"? - what's generating the list? And nothing automatically converts integers into strings. I'm afraid I don't understand your problem. Could you post some sample code and point out how it's not doing what you'd like it to do? — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented Sep 23, 2012 at 7:22
@vamosrafa.. Well it could not have converted automatically, unless you explicitly gave integers in string form. — Rohit Jain
– Rohit Jain, Commented Sep 23, 2012 at 7:32
Your edit hasn't made it much clearer. Please show the code that generated mylist_int. — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented Sep 23, 2012 at 7:33
@vamosrafa.. You need to clarify more clearly.. Add some more code you have written.. Or or problem statemtn will help.. — Rohit Jain
– Rohit Jain, Commented Sep 23, 2012 at 7:39
There you go.. See Tim's answer below.. You will get what you want.. — Rohit Jain
– Rohit Jain, Commented Sep 23, 2012 at 7:42

Tim Pietzcker · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-23 07:36:41Z

3

for x in range(N):
    x = input("")
    try:  
        the_list.append(int(x))
    except ValueError:
        the_list.append(x)

Let's run this:

1
hello
4.5
3
boo
>>> the_list
[1, 'hello', '4.5', 3, 'boo']

Note that you can't sort the list in a meaningful way (Python 2) or at all (Python 3) if it contains mixed types:

>>> sorted([1, "2", 3])                     # Python 3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: unorderable types: str() < int()

>>> sorted([1, "2", 3])                     # Python 2
[1, 3, '2']

answered Sep 23, 2012 at 7:36

Tim Pietzcker

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