你为什么不更像蟒蛇?

class AutoList:
def __init__(self, inp):
    try:                        ## Assume an opened-file...
        self.data = inp.read()
    except AttributeError:
        try:                    ## Assume an existent filename...
            with open(inp, 'r') as fd:
                self.data = fd.read()
        except:
            self.data = inp     ## Who cares what that might be?

更好的方法是使用isinstance和type转换。如果我没理解错的话，你想要的是

def __init__ (self, filename):
    if isinstance (filename, basestring):
        # filename is a string
    else:
        # try to convert to a list
        self.path = list (filename)

你可能需要isinstance内置函数:

self.data = data if isinstance(data, list) else self.parse(data)

快速和肮脏的修复

class MyData:
    def __init__(string=None,list=None):
        if string is not None:
            #do stuff
        elif list is not None:
            #do other stuff
        else:
            #make data empty

然后你可以用

MyData(astring)
MyData(None, alist)
MyData()

你应该使用isinstance

isinstance(...)
    isinstance(object, class-or-type-or-tuple) -> bool

    Return whether an object is an instance of a class or of a subclass thereof.
    With a type as second argument, return whether that is the object's type.
    The form using a tuple, isinstance(x, (A, B, ...)), is a shortcut for
    isinstance(x, A) or isinstance(x, B) or ... (etc.).

获得“交替构造函数”的一个更简洁的方法是使用类方法。例如:

>>> class MyData:
...     def __init__(self, data):
...         "Initialize MyData from a sequence"
...         self.data = data
...     
...     @classmethod
...     def fromfilename(cls, filename):
...         "Initialize MyData from a file"
...         data = open(filename).readlines()
...         return cls(data)
...     
...     @classmethod
...     def fromdict(cls, datadict):
...         "Initialize MyData from a dict's items"
...         return cls(datadict.items())
... 
>>> MyData([1, 2, 3]).data
[1, 2, 3]
>>> MyData.fromfilename("/tmp/foobar").data
['foo\n', 'bar\n', 'baz\n']
>>> MyData.fromdict({"spam": "ham"}).data
[('spam', 'ham')]

The reason it's neater is that there is no doubt about what type is expected, and you aren't forced to guess at what the caller intended for you to do with the datatype it gave you. The problem with isinstance(x, basestring) is that there is no way for the caller to tell you, for instance, that even though the type is not a basestring, you should treat it as a string (and not another sequence.) And perhaps the caller would like to use the same type for different purposes, sometimes as a single item, and sometimes as a sequence of items. Being explicit takes all doubt away and leads to more robust and clearer code.