We can convert a string to float in Python using float() function. It’s a built-in function to convert an object to floating point number. Internally float() function calls specified object __float__() function.
Python Convert String to float
Let’s look at a simple example to convert a string to float in Python.
s="10.5674"
f = float(s)
print(type(f))
print('Float Value=", f)
Output:
<class "float'>
Float Value = 10.5674
Why do we need to convert a string to float?
If we are getting float value from user input through the terminal or reading it from a file, then they are string objects. So we have to explicitly convert them to float so that we can perform necessary operations on it, such as addition, multiplication etc.
input_1 = input('Please enter first floating point value:n')
input_1 = float(input_1)
input_2 = input('Please enter second floating point value:n')
input_2 = float(input_2)
print(f'Sum of {input_1} and {input_2} is {input_1+input_2}')
Ideally, we should use try-except block to catch exceptions in case of invalid input from user.If you are not familiar with string formatting using f prefix, please read f-strings in Python.
Python Convert float to String
We can convert float to a string easily using str() function. This might be required sometimes where we want to concatenate float values. Let’s look at a simple example.
f1 = 10.23
f2 = 20.34
f3 = 30.45
# using f-string from Python 3.6+, change to format() for older versions
print(f'Concatenation of {f1} and {f2} is {str(f1) + str(f2)}')
print(f'CSV from {f1}, {f2} and {f3}:n{str(f1)},{str(f2)},{str(f3)}')
print(f'CSV from {f1}, {f2} and {f3}:n{", ".join([str(f1),str(f2),str(f3)])}')
Output:
Concatenation of 10.23 and 20.34 is 10.2320.34
CSV from 10.23, 20.34 and 30.45:
10.23,20.34,30.45
CSV from 10.23, 20.34 and 30.45:
10.23, 20.34, 30.45
If we don’t convert float to string in the above program, join() function will throw exception. Also, we won’t be able to use + operator to concatenate as it will add the floating point numbers.
Reference: float() official documentation