How to make “int” parse blank strings?

Question

I have a parsing system for fixed-length text records based on a layout table:

parse_table = [\\
    (\'name\', type, length),
    ....
    (\'numeric_field\         


        

Answer 1

lenient_int = lambda string: int(string) if string.strip() else None
                                                          #else 0
                                                          #else ???