convert string to float16 in python

I am currently using numpy (I don't know how to make a datatype float16 in python otherwise) as this:

a = np.string_('1.234').astype(np.float16)

then:

type(a)
numpy.float16

Is ther another option? Is it better?

It would be great if you could explain what am I doing when converting the python string into numpy string!

Thank you!

Solution

You can go directly from python string to np.float16:

import numpy as np

f16 = np.float16("1.234")
print(type(f16))

f16 = np.float16(1.234)  # works as well

Output:

<class 'numpy.float16'>