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.).

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.).

在python3中，你可以像Python Cookbook中写的那样使用函数注释实现多分派:

import time


class Date(metaclass=MultipleMeta):
    def __init__(self, year:int, month:int, day:int):
        self.year = year
        self.month = month
        self.day = day

    def __init__(self):
        t = time.localtime()
        self.__init__(t.tm_year, t.tm_mon, t.tm_mday)

它是这样工作的:

>>> d = Date(2012, 12, 21)
>>> d.year
2012
>>> e = Date()
>>> e.year
2018