Python: how to ensure method gets a list
<p>I have a method that takes a list of strings. Unfortunately, if the list is only one item long, Python treats this list as a string.</p>

<p>This post has a method for checking whether something is a string, and converting it to a list if it is:
<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10654377/python-how-to-define-a-function-that-gets-a-list-of-strings-or-a-string">Python: How to define a function that gets a list of strings OR a string</a></p>

<p>But this seems an incredibly redundant way of getting the item that I passed in as a list to in fact be a list. Is there a better way?</p>
