Doc/lib/libtypes.tex

   1 \section{\module{types} ---
   2          Names for all built-in types}
   3
   4 \declaremodule{standard}{types}
   5 \modulesynopsis{Names for all built-in types.}
   6
   7
   8 This module defines names for all object types that are used by the
   9 standard Python interpreter, but not for the types defined by various
  10 extension modules.  It is safe to use \samp{from types import *} ---
  11 the module does not export any names besides the ones listed here.
  12 New names exported by future versions of this module will all end in
  13 \samp{Type}.
  14
  15 Typical use is for functions that do different things depending on
  16 their argument types, like the following:
  17
  18 \begin{verbatim}
  19 from types import *
  20 def delete(list, item):
  21     if type(item) is IntType:
  22        del list[item]
  23     else:
  24        list.remove(item)
  25 \end{verbatim}
  26
  27 The module defines the following names:
  28
  29 \begin{datadesc}{NoneType}
  30 The type of \code{None}.
  31 \end{datadesc}
  32
  33 \begin{datadesc}{TypeType}
  34 The type of type objects (such as returned by
  35 \function{type()}\bifuncindex{type}).
  36 \end{datadesc}
  37
  38 \begin{datadesc}{IntType}
  39 The type of integers (e.g. \code{1}).
  40 \end{datadesc}
  41
  42 \begin{datadesc}{LongType}
  43 The type of long integers (e.g. \code{1L}).
  44 \end{datadesc}
  45
  46 \begin{datadesc}{FloatType}
  47 The type of floating point numbers (e.g. \code{1.0}).
  48 \end{datadesc}
  49
  50 \begin{datadesc}{ComplexType}
  51 The type of complex numbers (e.g. \code{1.0j}).  This is not defined
  52 if Python was built without complex number support.
  53 \end{datadesc}
  54
  55 \begin{datadesc}{StringType}
  56 The type of character strings (e.g. \code{'Spam'}).
  57 \end{datadesc}
  58
  59 \begin{datadesc}{UnicodeType}
  60 The type of Unicode character strings (e.g. \code{u'Spam'}).  This is
  61 not defined if Python was built without Unicode support.
  62 \end{datadesc}
  63
  64 \begin{datadesc}{TupleType}
  65 The type of tuples (e.g. \code{(1, 2, 3, 'Spam')}).
  66 \end{datadesc}
  67
  68 \begin{datadesc}{ListType}
  69 The type of lists (e.g. \code{[0, 1, 2, 3]}).
  70 \end{datadesc}
  71
  72 \begin{datadesc}{DictType}
  73 The type of dictionaries (e.g. \code{\{'Bacon': 1, 'Ham': 0\}}).
  74 \end{datadesc}
  75
  76 \begin{datadesc}{DictionaryType}
  77 An alternate name for \code{DictType}.
  78 \end{datadesc}
  79
  80 \begin{datadesc}{FunctionType}
  81 The type of user-defined functions and lambdas.
  82 \end{datadesc}
  83
  84 \begin{datadesc}{LambdaType}
  85 An alternate name for \code{FunctionType}.
  86 \end{datadesc}
  87
  88 \begin{datadesc}{GeneratorType}
  89 The type of generator-iterator objects, produced by calling a
  90 generator function.
  91 \versionadded{2.2}
  92 \end{datadesc}
  93
  94 \begin{datadesc}{CodeType}
  95 The type for code objects such as returned by
  96 \function{compile()}\bifuncindex{compile}.
  97 \end{datadesc}
  98
  99 \begin{datadesc}{ClassType}
 100 The type of user-defined classes.
 101 \end{datadesc}
 102
 103 \begin{datadesc}{InstanceType}
 104 The type of instances of user-defined classes.
 105 \end{datadesc}
 106
 107 \begin{datadesc}{MethodType}
 108 The type of methods of user-defined class instances.
 109 \end{datadesc}
 110
 111 \begin{datadesc}{UnboundMethodType}
 112 An alternate name for \code{MethodType}.
 113 \end{datadesc}
 114
 115 \begin{datadesc}{BuiltinFunctionType}
 116 The type of built-in functions like \function{len()} or
 117 \function{sys.exit()}.
 118 \end{datadesc}
 119
 120 \begin{datadesc}{BuiltinMethodType}
 121 An alternate name for \code{BuiltinFunction}.
 122 \end{datadesc}
 123
 124 \begin{datadesc}{ModuleType}
 125 The type of modules.
 126 \end{datadesc}
 127
 128 \begin{datadesc}{FileType}
 129 The type of open file objects such as \code{sys.stdout}.
 130 \end{datadesc}
 131
 132 \begin{datadesc}{XRangeType}
 133 The type of range objects returned by
 134 \function{xrange()}\bifuncindex{xrange}.
 135 \end{datadesc}
 136
 137 \begin{datadesc}{SliceType}
 138 The type of objects returned by
 139 \function{slice()}\bifuncindex{slice}.
 140 \end{datadesc}
 141
 142 \begin{datadesc}{EllipsisType}
 143 The type of \code{Ellipsis}.
 144 \end{datadesc}
 145
 146 \begin{datadesc}{TracebackType}
 147 The type of traceback objects such as found in
 148 \code{sys.exc_traceback}.
 149 \end{datadesc}
 150
 151 \begin{datadesc}{FrameType}
 152 The type of frame objects such as found in \code{tb.tb_frame} if
 153 \code{tb} is a traceback object.
 154 \end{datadesc}
 155
 156 \begin{datadesc}{BufferType}
 157 The type of buffer objects created by the
 158 \function{buffer()}\bifuncindex{buffer} function.
 159 \end{datadesc}
 160
 161 \begin{datadesc}{StringTypes}
 162 A sequence containing \code{StringType} and \code{UnicodeType} used to
 163 facilitate easier checking for any string object.  Using this is more
 164 portable than using a sequence of the two string types constructed
 165 elsewhere since it only contains \code{UnicodeType} if it has been
 166 built in the running version of Python.  For example:
 167 \code{isinstance(s, types.StringTypes)}.
 168 \versionadded{2.2}
 169 \end{datadesc}