>>> a = "abc"
>>> len(a)
3

>>> a = '3'
>>> a + 3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in &lt;module>
TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'int' objects

>>> int(a) + 3
6

>>> a = '2.3'
>>> float(a) + 1
3.3

