title: Is there a standalone Python type conversion library?
body: <p>Are there any standalone type conversion libraries?</p>
  
  <p>I have a data storage system that only understands bytes/strings, but I can tag metadata such as the type to be converted to.</p>
  
  <p>I could hack up some naive system of type converters, as every other application has done before me, or I could hopefully use a standalone library, except I can't find one. Odd for such a common activity.</p>
  
  <p>Just to clarify, I will have something like:</p>
  
  <p>('123', 'integer') and I want to get out 123</p>