In Python, however, there's no need to define a type. You can just use the variable name and the initial value. Python automatically figures out what your variable type is supposed to be.

The familiar formatted string, or f-string, feature in Python provides a convenient way to print variables as part of ... html.escape out_item = escape(str(item.value)) else: for l in item ...

Post a runnable example that demonstrates the unwanted behavior. There are a number of different ways to cause that sort of thing in Python.