Convert numpy scalar to simple python type [duplicate]

Question

I have a numpy array with a single value (scalar) which I would like to convert to correspoding Python data type. For example:

import numpy as np
a = np.array(3)
b = np.array('3')

I could convert them to int and str by casting:

a_int = int(a)
b_str = str(b)

but I need to know the types in advance. I would like to convert a to an integer and b to a string without explicit type checking. Is there a simple way to achieve it?

Answer 1

As described here, use the obj.item() method to get the Python scalar type:

import numpy as np
a = np.array(3).item()
b = np.array('3').item()
print(type(a))  # <class 'int'>
print(type(b))  # <class 'str'>

Answer 2

In this case

import numpy as np
a = np.array(3)
b = np.array('3')
a_int = a.tolist()
b_str = b.tolist()
print type(a_int), type(b_str)

should work