[python] ValueError when checking if variable is None or numpy.array

I'd like to check if variable is None or numpy.array. I've implemented check_a function to do this.

def check_a(a):
    if not a:
        print "please initialize a"

a = None
check_a(a)
a = np.array([1,2])
check_a(a)

But, this code raises ValueError. What is the straight forward way?

ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-41-0201c81c185e> in <module>()
      6 check_a(a)
      7 a = np.array([1,2])
----> 8 check_a(a)

<ipython-input-41-0201c81c185e> in check_a(a)
      1 def check_a(a):
----> 2     if not a:
      3         print "please initialize a"
      4 
      5 a = None

ValueError: The truth value of an array with more than one element is ambiguous. Use a.any() or a.all()

You can see if object has shape or not

def check_array(x):
    try:
        x.shape
        return True
    except:
        return False

To stick to == without consideration of the other type, the following is also possible.
type(a) == type(None)

If you are trying to do something very similar: a is not None, the same issue comes up. That is, Numpy complains that one must use a.any or a.all.

A workaround is to do:

if not (a is None):
    pass

Not too pretty, but it does the job.