Python – Check if String Contains Only Numbers

In this tutorial, we will look at how to check whether a string contains only numbers or not in Python with the help of some examples.

How to check if a string contains only numbers in Python?

You can use the string isdigit() function in Python to check whether a string only contains numbers or not. The following is the syntax –

# check if string s contains only numbers
s.isdigit()

It returns True if all the characters in the string are digits and False otherwise. (Note that this will return False if you use it on an empty string).

Let’s look at an example to see the usage of the above function.

# create a string
s = "127"
# check if it only contains numbers
print(s.isdigit())

Output:

True

You can see that we get True as the output since the string, s contained only numerical characters.

Let’s look at another example. This time, with a string where not all characters are numbers.

# create a string
s = "127a"
# check if it only contains numbers
print(s.isdigit())

Output:

False

We get False as the output.

Note that the string isdigit() method will return False if it does not find all the characters to be numeric. This can be an issue if you’re using it on –

1. Strings representing negative numbers

For example, we get False as the output, if we use the isdigit() function on negative numbers in a string.

# create a string
s = "-127"
# check if it only contains numbers
print(s.isdigit())

Output:

False

A workaround you can do is to use the string lstrip() function to remove the - sign from the starting of the string (if they are present) and then apply the string isdigit() function.

# create a string
s = "-127"
# check if it only contains numbers including negative numbers
print(s.lstrip('-').isdigit())

Output:

True

We now get True as the output.

Be careful about what you really want to use the isdigit() function for.

For example, if you want to check if all the characters in the string are digits or not, then it’s your perfect solution. But, if you want to check whether a string is a positive or a negative integer then be mindful of the - sign in the beginning.

2. Strings with decimal values

What if your string contains a decimal point with numbers on either side? Using the isdigit() function on the entire string will return False as the string does not contain all the characters as digits.

# create a string
s = "127.53"
# check if it only contains numbers
print(s.isdigit())

Output:

False

To check if the string contains only numbers irrespective of the decimal point. You can use the following code.

# create a string
s = "127.53"
# check if it only contains numbers irrespective of decimal point
ls = s.split(".") 
print(all(n.isdigit() for n in ls) and len(ls) <= 2)

Output:

True

Here we split the string on the decimal point and return True only if all the parts are digits and if there’s at a maximum only one decimal point in the string.

We can now combine our workarounds for negative and decimal numbers together to get a more robust check on whether a string is numerical or not irrespective of the presence of a negative sign or a decimal point.

# create a string
s = "-127.53"
# check if it only contains numbers irrespective of negative sign and decimal point
ls = s.lstrip("-").split(".") 
print(all(n.isdigit() for n in ls) and len(ls) <= 2)

Output:

True

Again, if your objective is to check whether characters are digits or not, using the isdigit() function directly will suffice your requirement.

You might also be interested in –

• Python – Check if a String Contains Numbers
• Python – Remove Non Alphanumeric Characters from String