>>> help(int) 
Help on class int in module __builtin__: 
class int(object) 
 | int(x[, base]) -> integer 
 |  
 | Convert a string or number to an integer, if possible. A floating point 
 | argument will be truncated towards zero (this does not include a string 
 | representation of a floating point number!) When converting a string, use 
 | the optional base. It is an error to supply a base when converting a 
 | non-string. If base is zero, the proper base is guessed based on the 
 | string content. If the argument is outside the integer range a 
 | long object will be returned instead. 
>>> int(12.0) 
12 

>>> int('12',16) 
18  

>>> int('0xa',16) 
10 
>>> int('10',8) 
8