python - Convert a list of strings to either int or float

Question

I have a list which looks something like this:

['1', '2', '3.4', '5.6', '7.8']

How do I change the first two to int and the three last to float?

I want my list to look like this:

[1, 2, 3.4, 5.6, 7.8]

Answer 1

Use a conditional inside a list comprehension

>>> s = ['1', '2', '3.4', '5.6', '7.8']
>>> [float(i) if '.' in i else int(i) for i in s]
[1, 2, 3.4, 5.6, 7.8]

Interesting edge case of exponentials. You can add onto the conditional.

>>> s = ['1', '2', '3.4', '5.6', '7.8' , '1e2']
>>> [float(i) if '.' in i or 'e' in i else int(i) for i in s]
[1, 2, 3.4, 5.6, 7.8, 100.0]

Using isdigit is the best as it takes care of all the edge cases (mentioned by Steven in a comment)

>>> s = ['1', '2', '3.4', '5.6', '7.8']
>>> [int(i) if i.isdigit() else float(i) for i in s]
[1, 2, 3.4, 5.6, 7.8, 100.0]