Python how to read() and convert to __int__

I have a text file that contains the XP of the player in it. Every time the game starts:

if os.path.getsize("game_data.txt") != 0:
    with open("game_data.txt"), "r") as f:
        XP = f.readline()
else:
     XP = 0

, so that the XP of the player sets to the only item in the file. And at the end of the file (around pygame.quit()) it has this code:

with open("game_data.txt", "w") as f:
    f.write(str(XP))

But whenever I try to do XP += (some number) in my code, I get an error saying that XP is a string (because what I .read() is always a string) so I cannot use += with a number. Is there a way to explicitly convert what you .read() to __int__?

Answer

Try following code

if os.path.getsize("game_data.txt") != 0:
    with open("game_data.txt"), "r") as f:
        XP = int(float(f.readline()))
else:
     XP = 0