[Python-Dev] Need a way to test for 8-bit-or-unicode-string

[Neil Schemenauer]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> 
>     if isinstance(x, str) or isinstance(x, unicode):
> 
> is apparently too much typing.

Perhaps we could extend isinstance().  How about

    isinstance(x, str, unicode)

or

    isinstance(x, (str, unicode))

This is a common problem not limited to string types.  I often want to
test if something is a tuple or a list for example.

  Neil