Safe casting in python

I do realize that this is an old post, but this might be helpful to some one.

x = int(word) if word.isdigit() else None

Think not, but you may implement your own:

def safe_cast(val, to_type, default=None):
    try:
        return to_type(val)
    except (ValueError, TypeError):
        return default

safe_cast('tst', int) # will return None
safe_cast('tst', int, 0) # will return 0