Checking whether bool is a type

[Jan Decaluwe]

In my application I need to know whether bool is
available as a type (in Python2.3) or not. I just
realized I can use the following:

jand> python
Python 2.3c1 (#1, Jul 21 2003, 12:40:39)
[GCC 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.1 2.96-98)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.True

jand> python2.2
Python 2.2.2 (#1, Oct 16 2002, 19:59:11)
[GCC 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.1 2.96-98)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.0

Great isn't it ?! Not sure whether I should consider
this to be completely obvious or very deep ...

Regards, Jan

 

[Martin v. =?iso-8859-15?q?L=F6wis?=]

jand> python2.2
Python 2.2.2 (#1, Oct 16 2002, 19:59:11)
[GCC 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.1 2.96-98)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.0

Great isn't it ?! Not sure whether I should consider
this to be completely obvious or very deep ...

Very obvious.

Python 2.2.1 (#1, Sep 10 2002, 17:49:17)
[GCC 3.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.<built-in function bool>

bool is a function in Python 2.2.1+, not a type. It became a type only
in Python 2.3, see PEP 285.

Regards,
Martin

 

[Christos TZOTZIOY Georgiou]

In my application I need to know whether bool is
available as a type (in Python2.3) or not. I just
realized I can use the following:

You might like to do this as an alternative:

def bool_is_type():
try:
return isinstance(bool, type)
except NameError:
return 0

to catch older python versions as well.