Python: Convert a string to an integer

Question

Does anybody have a quickie for converting an unsafe string to an int?

The string typically comes back as: \'234\\r\\n\' or something like

Answer 1

Without knowing what kinds of inputs you are expecting, it's hard to say what is 'enough' to solve this. If you are just worried about trailing newlines, then Xavier Combelle's or gruszczy's answer is enough:

try:
    x = int(value)
except ValueError:
    x = 0

If you have to find any integer, anywhere in a string, then you might need something like this:

import re
try:
    x = int(re.search(r'(0|(-?[1-9][0-9]*))', searchstring).group(0))
except TypeError: # Catch exception if re.search returns None
    x = 0