Removing Trailing Zeros in Python [duplicate]

I need to find a way to convert the following strings in python:

0.000       => 0
0           => 0
123.45000   => 123.45
0000        => 0
123.4506780 => 123.450678

and so forth. I tried .rstrip('0').rstrip('.'), but that doesn't work if the input is 0 or 00.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Updated Generalized to maintain precision and handle unseen values:

import decimal
import random

def format_number(num):
    try:
        dec = decimal.Decimal(num)
    except:
        return 'bad'
    tup = dec.as_tuple()
    delta = len(tup.digits) + tup.exponent
    digits = ''.join(str(d) for d in tup.digits)
    if delta <= 0:
        zeros = abs(tup.exponent) - len(tup.digits)
        val = '0.' + ('0'*zeros) + digits
    else:
        val = digits[:delta] + ('0'*tup.exponent) + '.' + digits[delta:]
    val = val.rstrip('0')
    if val[-1] == '.':
        val = val[:-1]
    if tup.sign:
        return '-' + val
    return val

# test data
NUMS = '''
    0.0000      0
    0           0
    123.45000   123.45
    0000        0
    123.4506780 123.450678
    0.1         0.1
    0.001       0.001
    0.005000    0.005
    .1234       0.1234
    1.23e1      12.3
    -123.456    -123.456
    4.98e10     49800000000
    4.9815135   4.9815135
    4e30        4000000000000000000000000000000
    -0.0000000000004 -0.0000000000004
    -.4e-12     -0.0000000000004
    -0.11112    -0.11112
    1.3.4.5     bad
    -1.2.3      bad
'''

for num, exp in [s.split() for s in NUMS.split('\n') if s]:
    res = format_number(num)
    print res
    assert exp == res

Output:

0
0
123.45
0
123.450678
0.1
0.001
0.005
0.1234
12.3
-123.456
49800000000
4.9815135
4000000000000000000000000000000
-0.0000000000004
-0.0000000000004
-0.11112
bad
bad

You can use format strings if you want, but be aware that you might need to set your desired precision, as format strings have their own logic for this by default. Janneb suggests a precision of 17 in another answer.

'{:g}'.format(float(your_string_goes_here))

After thinking about this some more, though, I think the simplest and best solution is just to cast the string twice (as jathanism suggests):

str(float(your_string_goes_here))

Edit: Added clarification because of comment.