title: What is Python's coerce() used for?
body: <p>What are common uses for Python's built-in <code>coerce</code> function? I can see applying it if I do not know the <code>type</code> of a numeric value <a href="http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#coerce" rel="noreferrer">as per the documentation</a>, but do other common usages exist? I would guess that <code>coerce()</code> is also called when performing arithmetic computations, <em>e.g.</em> <code>x = 1.0 +2</code>. It's a built-in function, so presumably it has some potential common usage?</p>