How do you check the type of a variable in Python?

Python Variable Type Checking: Methods & Examples

In Python, we can check the type of a variable during runtime using various methods and built-in functions. Here are some common ways to determine a variable's data type:

Using the type() function:

The type() function returns the data type of an object as a type object.

Code:

temp1 = 42
temp2 = "Good Morning!"
print(type(temp1))
print(type(temp2))

Output:

<class 'int'>
<class 'str'>

Using isinstance() function:

The isinstance() function checks if a variable is an instance of a specified class or data type.

Code:

n = 12.23
if isinstance(n, float):
    print("n is a float.")
else:
    print("n is not a float.")

Output:

n is a float.

Using type() and __name__:

We can use the type() function along with the __name__ attribute of the type object to get the data type name as a string.

Code:

nums = [1, 2, 3]
print(type(nums).__name__)

Output:

list

Using the str() function:

The str() function can be used to get a human-readable string representation of the data type of a variable.

Code:

x = 22.7
print("The data type of x is:", str(type(x)))

Output:

The data type of x is: <class 'float'>

Using the type() function for type comparison:

You can compare the type() function result with known Python data types directly.

Code:

s = "Good Morning!"
if type(s) == str:
    print("s is a string.")
else:
    print("s is not a string.")

Output:

 s is a string.

Using the class attribute:

The class attribute can be used to get the class of user-defined objects, and then the name attribute can be used to get their names.

Code:

class Temp:
    pass
obj = Temp()
print(obj.__class__.__name__)

Output:

Temp