def convertDictionary(d, map={}):

    rx_int = re.compile("^\s*[+-]*[0-9]+\s*$")
    rx_float = re.compile("^[-+]?[0-9]*\.?[0-9]+([eE][-+]?[0-9]+)?$")

    # pre-process with 'default'
    if "default" in map:
        k = "default"
        if map[k] == "int":
            default = int
        elif map[k] == "float":
            default = float
        elif map[k] == "string":
            default = str
    else:
        default = False

    for k, vv in d.items():

        if vv is None:
            continue
        v = vv.strip()
        try:
            if k in map:
                if map[k] == "int":
                    d[k] = int(v)
                elif map[k] == "float":
                    d[k] = float(v)
                elif map[k] == "string":
                    pass
                continue
            elif default:
                if v != "":
                    d[k] = default(v)
                else:
                    d[k] = v
                continue
        except TypeError, msg:
            raise TypeError("conversion in field: %s, %s" % (k, msg))

        try:
            if rx_int.match(v):
                d[k] = int(v)
            elif rx_float.match(v):
                d[k] = float(v)
        except TypeError, msg:
            raise TypeError(
                "expected string or buffer: offending value = '%s' " % str(v))
        except ValueError, msg:
            raise ValueError("conversion error: %s, %s" % (msg, str(d)))
    return d
convert string values in a dictionary to numeric types.
dataset/ETHPy150Open CGATOxford/cgat/CGAT/IOTools.py/convertDictionary