What's the canonical way to check a type in Python?

The canonical way to check for the type of an object in Python is to use the isinstance function. Isinstance checks if an object is an instance of a specified class or of a subclass thereof.

Here's an example:

def check_type(obj):
    if isinstance(obj, int):
        return "Integer"
    elif isinstance(obj, float):
        return "Float"
    elif isinstance(obj, str):
        return "String"
    else:
        return "Other"

print(check_type(42)) # Output: Integer
print(check_type(3.14)) # Output: Float
print(check_type("hello")) # Output: String
print(check_type([1, 2, 3])) # Output: Other