Compare string and floats in python

Question

I have a two lists with values that I want to compare. If the value can be converted to a float, I want to compare the floats else I just want to compare the values as strings. How can I make that distinction to check whether a value can be converted to float or not?

What have tried? What code do you have so far? This is not "do my homework.com". — S.Lott
– S.Lott, Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 15:55

sth · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-20 15:56:26Z

4

The easiest way should be to just try to convert them to floats, and if that fails, fall back to a compare on strings:

def floatstrcmp(left, right):
   try:
      return cmp(float(left), float(right))
   except ValueError:
      return cmp(left, right)

answered Nov 20, 2009 at 15:56

sth

231k56 gold badges288 silver badges370 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

whatnick Over a year ago

Always be careful when comparing floats !! Floats are inaccurate by nature and exact float comparison will fail if the said floats are calculations results.

Denis Otkidach Over a year ago

Note, that float(obj) can raise TypeError (e.g. None) and AttributeError (python class instance) in addition to ValueError.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Compare string and floats in python

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related