6.20.3.4 Option types

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6.20.3.4 Option types

`optparse` supports six option types out of the box: string, int, long, choice, float and complex. (Of these, string, int, float, and choice are the most commonly used --long and complex are there mainly for completeness.) It's easy to add new option types by subclassing the `Option` class; see section 6.20.5, ``Extending `optparse`.''

Arguments to string options are not checked or converted in any way: the text on the command line is stored in the destination (or passed to the callback) as-is.

Integer arguments are passed to `int()` to convert them to Python integers. If `int()` fails, so will `optparse`, although with a more useful error message. Internally, `optparse` raises `OptionValueError` in `optparse.check_builtin()`; at a higher level (in `OptionParser`), `optparse` catches this exception and terminates your program with a useful error message.

Likewise, float arguments are passed to `float()` for conversion, long arguments to `long()`, and complex arguments to `complex()`. Apart from that, they are handled identically to integer arguments.

Choice options are a subtype of string options. A master list or tuple of choices (strings) must be passed to the option constructor (`make_option()` or `OptionParser.add_option()`) as the choices keyword argument. Choice option arguments are compared against this master list in `optparse.check_choice()`, and `OptionValueError` is raised if an unknown string is given.