Is it possible to set a number to NaN or infinity?

Yes, you can use numpy for that.

import numpy as np
a = arange(3,dtype=float)

a[0] = np.nan
a[1] = np.inf
a[2] = -np.inf

a # is now [nan,inf,-inf]

np.isnan(a[0]) # True
np.isinf(a[1]) # True
np.isinf(a[2]) # True

Cast from string using float():

>>> float('NaN')
nan
>>> float('Inf')
inf
>>> -float('Inf')
-inf
>>> float('Inf') == float('Inf')
True
>>> float('Inf') == 1
False