Python string interpolation: only show necessary decimal places

One option is something like

"{0}\"".format(str(round(x, 1) if x % 1 else int(x)))

which will display x as an integer if there's no fractional part. There's quite possibly a better way to go about this.

This is reusable, can be used on str, float, or int, and will convert '' to 0:

def minimalNumber(x):
    if type(x) is str:
        if x == '':
            x = 0
    f = float(x)
    if f.is_integer():
        return int(f)
    else:
        return f

Use with:

print "{}\"".format(minimalNumber(x))

Example:

x = 2.2
print "{}\"".format(minimalNumber(x))
x = 2.0
print "{}\"".format(minimalNumber(x))

Which outputs:

2.2"
2"