
``types`` --- Names for built-in types
**************************************

This module defines names for some object types that are used by the
standard Python interpreter, but not for the types defined by various
extension modules. Also, it does not include some of the types that
arise during processing such as the ``listiterator`` type. It is safe
to use ``from types import *`` --- the module does not export any
names besides the ones listed here. New names exported by future
versions of this module will all end in ``Type``.

Typical use is for functions that do different things depending on
their argument types, like the following:

   from types import *
   def delete(mylist, item):
       if type(item) is IntType:
          del mylist[item]
       else:
          mylist.remove(item)

Starting in Python 2.2, built-in factory functions such as ``int()``
and ``str()`` are also names for the corresponding types.  This is now
the preferred way to access the type instead of using the ``types``
module. Accordingly, the example above should be written as follows:

   def delete(mylist, item):
       if isinstance(item, int):
          del mylist[item]
       else:
          mylist.remove(item)

The module defines the following names:

types.NoneType

   The type of ``None``.

types.TypeType

   The type of type objects (such as returned by ``type()``); alias of
   the built-in ``type``.

types.BooleanType

   The type of the ``bool`` values ``True`` and ``False``; alias of
   the built-in ``bool``.

   New in version 2.3.

types.IntType

   The type of integers (e.g. ``1``); alias of the built-in ``int``.

types.LongType

   The type of long integers (e.g. ``1L``); alias of the built-in
   ``long``.

types.FloatType

   The type of floating point numbers (e.g. ``1.0``); alias of the
   built-in ``float``.

types.ComplexType

   The type of complex numbers (e.g. ``1.0j``).  This is not defined
   if Python was built without complex number support.

types.StringType

   The type of character strings (e.g. ``'Spam'``); alias of the
   built-in ``str``.

types.UnicodeType

   The type of Unicode character strings (e.g. ``u'Spam'``).  This is
   not defined if Python was built without Unicode support.  It's an
   alias of the built-in ``unicode``.

types.TupleType

   The type of tuples (e.g. ``(1, 2, 3, 'Spam')``); alias of the
   built-in ``tuple``.

types.ListType

   The type of lists (e.g. ``[0, 1, 2, 3]``); alias of the built-in
   ``list``.

types.DictType

   The type of dictionaries (e.g. ``{'Bacon': 1, 'Ham': 0}``); alias
   of the built-in ``dict``.

types.DictionaryType

   An alternate name for ``DictType``.

types.FunctionType
types.LambdaType

   The type of user-defined functions and functions created by
   ``lambda`` expressions.

types.GeneratorType

   The type of *generator*-iterator objects, produced by calling a
   generator function.

   New in version 2.2.

types.CodeType

   The type for code objects such as returned by ``compile()``.

types.ClassType

   The type of user-defined old-style classes.

types.InstanceType

   The type of instances of user-defined classes.

types.MethodType

   The type of methods of user-defined class instances.

types.UnboundMethodType

   An alternate name for ``MethodType``.

types.BuiltinFunctionType
types.BuiltinMethodType

   The type of built-in functions like ``len()`` or ``sys.exit()``,
   and methods of built-in classes.  (Here, the term "built-in" means
   "written in C".)

types.ModuleType

   The type of modules.

types.FileType

   The type of open file objects such as ``sys.stdout``; alias of the
   built-in ``file``.

types.XRangeType

   The type of range objects returned by ``xrange()``; alias of the
   built-in ``xrange``.

types.SliceType

   The type of objects returned by ``slice()``; alias of the built-in
   ``slice``.

types.EllipsisType

   The type of ``Ellipsis``.

types.TracebackType

   The type of traceback objects such as found in
   ``sys.exc_traceback``.

types.FrameType

   The type of frame objects such as found in ``tb.tb_frame`` if
   ``tb`` is a traceback object.

types.BufferType

   The type of buffer objects created by the ``buffer()`` function.

types.DictProxyType

   The type of dict proxies, such as ``TypeType.__dict__``.

types.NotImplementedType

   The type of ``NotImplemented``

types.GetSetDescriptorType

   The type of objects defined in extension modules with
   ``PyGetSetDef``, such as ``FrameType.f_locals`` or
   ``array.array.typecode``.  This type is used as descriptor for
   object attributes; it has the same purpose as the ``property``
   type, but for classes defined in extension modules.

   New in version 2.5.

types.MemberDescriptorType

   The type of objects defined in extension modules with
   ``PyMemberDef``, such as ``datetime.timedelta.days``.  This type is
   used as descriptor for simple C data members which use standard
   conversion functions; it has the same purpose as the ``property``
   type, but for classes defined in extension modules.

   **CPython implementation detail:** In other implementations of
   Python, this type may be identical to ``GetSetDescriptorType``.

   New in version 2.5.

types.StringTypes

   A sequence containing ``StringType`` and ``UnicodeType`` used to
   facilitate easier checking for any string object.  Using this is
   more portable than using a sequence of the two string types
   constructed elsewhere since it only contains ``UnicodeType`` if it
   has been built in the running version of Python.  For example:
   ``isinstance(s, types.StringTypes)``.

   New in version 2.2.
