Convert (Parse) a string to a float in Python

The float() converts strings to floats in Python.

a = '3.1415'
b = float(a)

print(b)  # 3.1415
print(type(b))  # <class 'float'>

Note that the type() returns an object type. The type of a string is str and the type of a float is float. The float() can parse a string starting with a dot like .123.

a = '.1415'
b = float(a)

print(b)  # 0.1415
print(type(b))  # <class 'float'>

The float() also parses an "int" string to a float.

a = '123'
b = float(a)

print(b)  # 123.0
print(type(b))  # <class 'float'>