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Updated on: June 29, 2021 | + 11 Comments
 Python Statements

 Python Comments The Python’s isinstance() function checks

 Python Keywords whether the object or variable is an instance of
 Python Variables the specified class type or data type.
 Python Operators
For example, isinstance(name, str) checks if
 Python Data Types
name is an instance of a class str .
 Python Casting

 Python Control Flow statements

Also, Solve: Python Basic Exercise and
 Python For Loop
Beginners Quiz
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Table of contents
 Python range function
• How To Use isinstance() Function in Python
 Check user input is String or
• Example
Number
• isinstance() With Built-In Types
 Accept List as a input from user
• isinstance() With Multiple Classes
 Python Numbers
• isinstance() With Python Class
 Python Lists
• isinstance() function With Inheritance
 Python Tuples
• isinstance with Python list
 Python Sets
• Checking if an object is an instance of a
 Python Dictionaries
list type
 Python Functions
• Check if an element of a list is a nested
 Python Modules
list
 Python isinstance()
• Check if elements of a list are numbers
 Python Object-Oriented or strings
Programming
• Next steps
 Python Exceptions

 Python Exercise for Beginners

 Python Quiz for Beginners

All Python Topics

Python Basics Python Exercises

Python Quizzes
Python File Handling Python OOP
Python Date and Time

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Learn isinstance()
Python  Exercises  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks

Function in Python

Let’s see the syntax first before moving to the

example.

Syntax:

isinstance(object

• It takes two
Python isinstance()
arguments, and
both are
mandatory.

• The
isinstance()
function checks
if the object
argument is an
instance or
subclass of
classinfo class
argument

Using isinstance() function, we can test

whether an object/variable is an instance of the
specified type or class such as int or list. In the
case of inheritance, we can checks if the specified
class is the parent class of an object.

1. Pass object to isinstance()

Pass the variable you want to check as

object argument to the isinstance() .
Here the object can be any class object or
any variable name

2. Specify the Class or Type name as a

classinfo argument

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For example, isinstance(x, int) to check
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if x is an instance of a class int .
classinfo is a type name or Class name
you want to check against the variable. Here
you can specify data type name or Class
name.
You can also pass multiple classes/types in a
tuple format. For example, you can pass
int , str , list , dict , or any user-created
class.

3. Execute your operation, If result is

True

The isinstance() returns True if an object

or variable is of a specified type otherwise
False.

Example

Using isintance() we can verify whether a variable

is a number or string. Let’s assume variable num
= 90 , and you want to check whether num is an
instance of an int type.

num = 90
result = isinstance(num, int)
if result:
print("Yes")
else:
print("No")

   Run

Output:

Yes

As we can see in the output, the isinstance()

returned True because num hold an integer
value.

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Note: If the classinfo argument is not a
Class, type, or tuple of types, a TypeError
exception is raised.

isinstance() With Built-In

Types
As you know, Every value (variable) in Python has
a type. In Python, we can use different built-in
types such as int , float , list, tuple, strings,
dictionary. Most of the time, you want to check
the type of value to do some operations. In this
case, isinstance() function is useful.

# Check if 80 is an instance of class int

number = 80
print(isinstance(number, int))
# output True

print(isinstance(number, float))
# output False

pi = 3.14
# Check 3.14 is an instance of class float
print(isinstance(pi, float))
# Output True

# Check if (1 + 2j) is an instance of complex

complex_num = 1 + 2j
print(isinstance(complex_num, complex))
# Output True

# Check if 'PYnative' is an instance of class string

name = "PYnative.com"
print(isinstance(name, str))
# Output True

# Check if names is an instance of class list

names = ["Eric", "Scott", "Kelly"]
print(isinstance(names, list))
# Output True

# Check if student_report is an instance of class dict

student_report = {"John": 80, "Eric": 70,

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print(isinstance(student_report, dict))
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# Output True

# Check if names is an instance of class tuple

names = ("Sam", "Kelly", 'Emma')
print(isinstance(names, tuple))
# Output True

# Check if numbers is an instance of class tuple

numbers = {11, 22, 33, 44, 55}
print(isinstance(numbers, set))
# Output True

   Run

Note: If we use the isinstance() with any

variable or object with a None , it returns False .
Let see the simple example of it.

var = None
# empty but not None
s1 = ''
print(isinstance(var, float))
# Output False
print(isinstance(s1, str))
# Output True

   Run

isinstance() With Multiple

Classes
You can also check the instance with multiple
types. Let’s say you have a variable, and you
wanted to check whether it holds any numeric
value or not, for example, a numeric value can be
an int or float .

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To verify whether a variable is an instance of one

of the specified types, we need to mention all
types in a tuple and pass it to the classInfo
argument of isinstance() .

Example

def check_number(var):
if isinstance(var, (int, float)):
print('variable', var, 'is instance of numeric type
else:
print('variable', var, 'is not instance of numeric

num1 = 80
check_number(num1)
# Output variable 80 is instance of numeric type

num2 = 55.70
check_number(num2)
# Output variable 55.7 is instance of numeric type

num3 = '20'
check_number(num3)
# Output variable '20' is not instance of numeric type

   Run

isinstance() With Python

Class
The isinstance() works as a comparison
operator, and it compares the object with the
specified class type.

You can verify if the emp object is an instance of a

user-defined class Employee using the
isinstance() function. It must return True.

class Employee:

def __init__(self, name, salary):

self.name = name

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self.salary = salary
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class Person:

def __init__(self, name, sex):

self.name = name
self.sex = sex

emp = Employee("Emma", 11000)

per = Person("Brent", "male")

# Checking if a emp object is an instance of Employee

print(isinstance(emp, Employee))
# Output True

# Checking if the per object is an instance of Employee

print(isinstance(per, Employee))
# Output False

   Run

isinstance() function With

Inheritance
The object of the subclass type is also a type of
parent class. For example, If Car is a subclass of a
Vehicle, then the object of Car can be referred to
by either Car or Vehicle. In this case, the
isinstance(carObject, Vehicle) will return
True .

The isinstance() function works on the

principle of the is-a relationship. The concept of
an is-a relationship is based on class inheritance.

The instance() returns True if the classinfo

argument of the instance() is the object’s class’s
parent class.

To demonstrate this, I have created two classes,

Developer and PythonDeveoper. Here
PythonDeveoper is a sub-class of a Developer
class.

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class  Learn Python  Exercises
Developer(object):  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks

# Constructor
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name

def display(self):
print("Developer:", self.name, "-"

class PythonDeveloper(Developer):

# Constructor
def __init__(self, name, language):
self.name = name
self.language = language

def display(self):
print("Python Developer:", self.name

# Object of PythonDeveloper
dev = PythonDeveloper("Eric", "Python")
# is PythonDeveloper object an instance of a PythonDevelope
print(isinstance(dev, PythonDeveloper))
# Output True

# is python_dev object an instance of a Developer Class

print(isinstance(dev, Developer))
# Output True

   Run

Note: The isinstance() function is beneficial

for casting objects at runtime because once you
get to know the given class is a subclass of a
parent class, you can do casting appropriately if
required.

isinstance with Python list

As you know, a Python list is used to store
multiple values at the same time. These values
can be of any data type like numbers, strings, or
any Class objects.

In this section, we will test the following

operations with the Python list using the

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isinstance() function:
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• Checking if an object is of type list in

python.

• Check if an element of a list is a list.

• Verify if elements of a list are numbers or

strings.

• Python check if all elements of a list are the

same type

Checking if an object is an
instance of a list type

sample_list = ["Emma", "Stevan", "Brent"]

res = isinstance(sample_list, list)
print(sample_list, 'is instance of list?'

# Output 'Emma', 'Stevan', 'Brent'] is instance of list? Tr

   Run

Check if an element of a list is a

nested list

To check if one of the elements in the list is itself

a list. For example, you have the following list,
Use the isinstance() to verify if the list contains
a nested list

sampleList = ['Emma', 'Stevan', ['Jordan'

Iterate a list and verify each element’s class, and if

it a list type, we can say that the list contains a
nested list.

sample_list = ['Emma', 'Stevan', ['Jordan'

for item in sample_list:
if isinstance(item, list):
print("Yes", item, 'is a nested list'

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# Output Yes ['Jordan', 'Donald', 'Sam'] is a nested list
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   Run

Check if elements of a list are

numbers or strings

Check each element’s type with multiple numeric

types such as int , float , and complex using
the isinstance() function.

To find all string variables, Check each element’s

type with str type.

sample_list = ['Emma', 'Stevan', 12, 45.6

number_list = []
string_list = []
for item in sample_list:
if isinstance(item, (int, float, complex
number_list.append(item)
elif isinstance(item, str):
string_list.append(item)

# String List
print(string_list)
# Output ['Emma', 'Stevan', 'Eric']

# Number list
print(number_list)
# Output [12, 45.6, (1+2j)]

   Run

Next steps

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Comments

ZAINAB says
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REPLY

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