How to check if variable is string with python 2 and 3 compatibility

Question

I\'m aware that I can use: isinstance(x, str) in python-3.x but I need to check if something is a string in python-2.x as well. Will isinstance(x, str)

Answer 1

You can try this at the beginning of your code:

from __future__ import print_function
import sys
if sys.version[0] == "2":
    py3 = False
else:
    py3 = True
if py3: 
    basstring = str
else:
    basstring = basestring

and later in the code:

anystring = "test"
# anystring = 1
if isinstance(anystring, basstring):
    print("This is a string")
else:
    print("No string")