8.15.types — Names for built-in types

Source code:Lib/types.py

This module defines names for some object types that are used by the standardPython interpreter, but not for the types defined by various extension modules.Also, it does not include some of the types that arise during processing such asthelistiterator type. It is safe to usefromtypesimport* — themodule does not export any names besides the ones listed here. New namesexported by future versions of this module will all end inType.

Typical use is for functions that do different things depending on theirargument types, like the following:

fromtypesimport*defdelete(mylist,item):iftype(item)isIntType:delmylist[item]else:mylist.remove(item)

Starting in Python 2.2, built-in factory functions such asint() andstr() are also names for the corresponding types. This is now thepreferred way to access the type instead of using thetypes module.Accordingly, the example above should be written as follows:

defdelete(mylist,item):ifisinstance(item,int):delmylist[item]else:mylist.remove(item)

The module defines the following names:

types.NoneType

The type ofNone.

types.TypeType

The type of type objects (such as returned bytype()); alias of thebuilt-intype.

types.BooleanType

The type of thebool valuesTrue andFalse; alias of thebuilt-inbool.

New in version 2.3.

types.IntType

The type of integers (e.g.1); alias of the built-inint.

types.LongType

The type of long integers (e.g.1L); alias of the built-inlong.

types.FloatType

The type of floating point numbers (e.g.1.0); alias of the built-infloat.

types.ComplexType

The type of complex numbers (e.g.1.0j). This is not defined if Python wasbuilt without complex number support.

types.StringType

The type of character strings (e.g.'Spam'); alias of the built-instr.

types.UnicodeType

The type of Unicode character strings (e.g.u'Spam'). This is not definedif Python was built without Unicode support. It’s an alias of the built-inunicode.

types.TupleType

The type of tuples (e.g.(1,2,3,'Spam')); alias of the built-intuple.

types.ListType

The type of lists (e.g.[0,1,2,3]); alias of the built-inlist.

types.DictType

The type of dictionaries (e.g.{'Bacon':1,'Ham':0}); alias of thebuilt-indict.

types.DictionaryType

An alternate name forDictType.

types.FunctionType
types.LambdaType

The type of user-defined functions and functions created bylambdaexpressions.

types.GeneratorType

The type ofgenerator-iterator objects, produced by calling agenerator function.

New in version 2.2.

types.CodeType

The type for code objects such as returned bycompile().

types.ClassType

The type of user-defined old-style classes.

types.InstanceType

The type of instances of user-defined old-style classes.

types.MethodType

The type of methods of user-defined class instances.

types.UnboundMethodType

An alternate name forMethodType.

types.BuiltinFunctionType
types.BuiltinMethodType

The type of built-in functions likelen() orsys.exit(), andmethods of built-in classes. (Here, the term “built-in” means “written inC”.)

types.ModuleType

The type of modules.

types.FileType

The type of open file objects such assys.stdout; alias of the built-infile.

types.XRangeType

The type of range objects returned byxrange(); alias of the built-inxrange.

types.SliceType

The type of objects returned byslice(); alias of the built-inslice.

types.EllipsisType

The type ofEllipsis.

types.TracebackType

The type of traceback objects such as found insys.exc_traceback.

types.FrameType

The type of frame objects such as found intb.tb_frame iftb is atraceback object.

types.BufferType

The type of buffer objects created by thebuffer() function.

types.DictProxyType

The type of dict proxies, such asTypeType.__dict__.

types.NotImplementedType

The type ofNotImplemented

types.GetSetDescriptorType

The type of objects defined in extension modules withPyGetSetDef, suchasFrameType.f_locals orarray.array.typecode. This type is used asdescriptor for object attributes; it has the same purpose as theproperty type, but for classes defined in extension modules.

New in version 2.5.

types.MemberDescriptorType

The type of objects defined in extension modules withPyMemberDef, suchasdatetime.timedelta.days. This type is used as descriptor for simple Cdata members which use standard conversion functions; it has the same purposeas theproperty type, but for classes defined in extension modules.

CPython implementation detail: In other implementations of Python, this type may be identical toGetSetDescriptorType.

New in version 2.5.

types.StringTypes

A sequence containingStringType andUnicodeType used to facilitateeasier checking for any string object. Using this is more portable than using asequence of the two string types constructed elsewhere since it only containsUnicodeType if it has been built in the running version of Python. Forexample:isinstance(s,types.StringTypes).

New in version 2.2.