Python isinstance()

 numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 5] 
# check if numbers is instance of list result = isinstance(numbers, list)
 print(result) # Output: True

isinstance() Syntax

The syntax of isinstance() is:

isinstance(object, classinfo)

isinstance() Parameters

isinstance() takes two parameters:

• object - object to be checked
• classinfo - class, type, or tuple of classes and types

isinstance Return Value

isinstance() returns:

• True if the object is an instance or subclass of a class or any element of the tuple
• False otherwise

If classinfo is not a type or tuple of types, a TypeError exception is raised.

Example 1: How isinstance() works?

 class Foo: a = 5 fooInstance = Foo() 
print(isinstance(fooInstance, Foo))
 print(isinstance(fooInstance, (list, tuple))) print(isinstance(fooInstance, (list, tuple, Foo)))

Output

 True False True

Example 2: Working of isinstance() with Native Types

 numbers = [1, 2, 3] 
result = isinstance(numbers, list)
 print(numbers,'instance of list?', result) result = isinstance(numbers, dict) print(numbers,'instance of dict?', result) result = isinstance(numbers, (dict, list)) print(numbers,'instance of dict or list?', result) number = 5 
result = isinstance(number, list)
 print(number,'instance of list?', result) result = isinstance(number, int) print(number,'instance of int?', result)

Output

 [1, 2, 3] instance of list? True [1, 2, 3] instance of dict? False [1, 2, 3] instance of dict or list? True 5 instance of list? False 5 instance of int? True

Also Read:

• Python type()
• Python Program to Differentiate Between type() and isinstance()