string problems

hey guys having some issues with a program

a = float (raw_input ("enter int or float: "))

with this piece of code, every time the input is randomly a string it crashes my program, is there any way to tell python that it's okay to be a string and ignore it????

i was thinking something like....
type (a)
if a == <type 'str'>...IGNORE IT!
...and so on and so forth

didn't seem to work.. any ideas/

If you're using Python, I feel bad for you son
It's got 99 problems but strings ain't one.

>>1
I think I saw this on another site once, and they said something like you need to satanise your input.

satanise your input
lel, it's like reverse taint checking

so hard right now XDXDDDDDXDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

me too
;D

egigiigigigignegiegnegiergnegrgregergge gor

type cast
cin >> float(<str>);

>>8
in python
storred_input_variable = float(<str>)