@staticmethod
def identify_var_type(instance):
    """
        Identify common python and numpy types

        Parameters
        ----------
        instance
            python variable instance to be tested for it numeric type

        Returns
        -------
        str
            a string representation of the variable type

        """
    ty = type(instance)
    known_types = [float, int, bool, str]
    if ty in known_types:
        return ty.__name__
    elif hasattr(instance, 'dtype'):
        return 'numpy.' + instance.dtype.type.__name__
    else:
        return 'None'
