how about just testing it's length? >>> from types import StringType
def stringTest(x): ... if type(x) == StringType: ... if len(x) == 0: ... print 'Empty String' ... else: ... print 'Not Empty String' ... else: ... print 'value not String Type' ... lst = ['a','',5,(5,6),{'a':5}] for item in lst: ... stringTest(item) ... Not Empty String Empty String value not String Type value not String Type value not String Type -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list