title: converting string to long in python
body: <p>Python provides a convenient method long() to convert string to long:</p>
  
  <pre><code>long('234') 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>; converts '234' into a long</p>
  
  <p>If user keys in 234.89 then python will raise an error message:</p>
  
  <pre><code>ValueError: invalid literal for long()
  with base 10: '234.89'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How should we a python programmer handles scenarios where a string with a decimal value ? </p>
  
  <p>Thank you =)</p>