What's the difference between: <pre class="prettyprint"><code>isinstance(foo, types.StringType) </code></pre> and <pre class="prettyprint"><code>isinstance(foo, basestring) </code></pre> ?

For Python2: <code>basestring</code> is the base class for both <code>str</code> and <code>unicode</code>, while <code>types.StringType</code> is <code>str</code>. If you want to check if something is a string, use <code>basestring</code>. If you want to check if something is a bytestring, use <code>str</code> and forget about <code>types</code>.

Difference in python between basestring and types.StringType?

Tags:

python

What's the difference between:

isinstance(foo, types.StringType)

and

isinstance(foo, basestring)

272

asked Oct 27 '09 19:10

10 revs, 7 users 53%

1 Answers

For Python2: basestring is the base class for both str and unicode, while types.StringType is str. If you want to check if something is a string, use basestring. If you want to check if something is a bytestring, use str and forget about types.