Python: How to use type function in if statements?

Question

I'm writing a program that loads a list of data from a file and I need the program to differentiate if the data in the line is either a string or an integer. However in the code I have done the program doesn't differentiate numbers from strings.

An example of the list of data I have:

HAJOS
ALFRED
1896
1

My code:

def medalsYear():
  times = 1
  totalGold = 0
  totalSilver = 0
  totalBronze = 0
  while times <= 5:
    alpha = fob.readline() #reads file line by line#
    print(alpha)
    times = times + 1
    if type(alpha) == int:
        if alpha == 1:
            totalGold = totalGold + 1
            print("gold medal won")
        elif alpha == 2:
            totalSilver = totalSilver + 1
            print("silver medal won")
        elif alpha == 3:
            totalBronze = totalBronze + 1
            print("bronze medal won")
        else:
            pass
    else:
        print('is a string')
  print(totalGold, "Gold medals won")
  print(totalSilver, "Silver medals won")
  print(totalBronze, "Bronze medals won")

My problem is that when the program reads a line that has an integer, it doesn't determine correctly if the line contains an integer and from there run through the corresponding if statement. Currently my output looks like this.

HAJOS
is a string
ALFRED
is a string
1896
is a string
1
is a string

is a string
0 Gold medals won
0 Silver medals won
0 Bronze medals won
done

Answer 1

Data read from a file is always going to be a string. You'll need to try and convert those lines, not test their type:

try:
    alpha = int(alpha)
    if alpha == 1:
        totalGold = totalGold + 1
        print("gold medal won")
    elif alpha == 2:
        totalSilver = totalSilver + 1
        print("silver medal won")
    elif alpha == 3:
        totalBronze = totalBronze + 1
        print("bronze medal won")
except ValueError:
    print('is a string')

int() will raise a ValueError when alpha cannot be interpreted as an integer number. The exception, if raised, causes Python to jump to the except ValueError: block instead of executing the rest of the try: suite.

Answer 2

You can make a dict where the keys are "1","2" and "3" to correspond to gold, silver, bronze and use dict.get.

with open(infile) as f:
    times = 1
    medal_dict = {"1": 0, "2": 0, "3": 0}
    while times <= 5:
        alpha = f.readline().rstrip()  #reads file line by line#
        times += 1
        if medal_dict.get(alpha) is not None:
            medal_dict[alpha] += 1
        else:
            print("is a string")
    print(medal_dict["1"], "Gold medals won")
    print(medal_dict["2"], "Silver medals won")
    print(medal_dict["3"], "Bronze medals won")

Which outputs:

(1, 'Gold medals won')
(0, 'Silver medals won')
(0, 'Bronze medals won')

If you want to print when a medal is won through the loop:

with open(infile) as f:
    times = 1
    medal_dict = {"1": [0,"gold"], "2": [0,"silver"], "3": [0,"bronze"]}
    while times <= 5:
        alpha = f.readline().rstrip()  #reads file line by line#
        print(alpha)
        times += 1#
        check = medal_dict.get(alpha)
        if check is not None:
            medal_dict[alpha][0] += 1
            print("{} medal won".format(check[1]))
        else:
            print("is a string")
    print(medal_dict["1"][0], "Gold medals won")
    print(medal_dict["2"][0], "Silver medals won")
    print(medal_dict["3"][0], "Bronze medals won")