When performing an assignment to a variable, you can convert a value from a string to a number, or vice versa. The following are examples of assignments in which a string is converted to an integer and to a floating point number:

stringtemp = "37"
integertemp = int(stringtemp)
stringtemp = "98.6"
floattemp = float(stringtemp)

Here, integertemp is assigned the number 37, and floattemp is assigned the number 98.6. The actual conversion is performed by two predefined chunks of code known as functions: int() converts a string to an integer, and float() converts a string to a floating point number.

	The int() function cannot handle floating point numbers. For example, the following code generates an error: stringtemp = "98.6" floattemp = int(stringtemp)

The function str() converts a number to a string:

floattemp = 98.6
stringtemp = str(floattemp)

Functions are discussed in more detail in the Functions and Global Variables section.