How to convert tuple in string to tuple object?

Question

In Python 2.7, I have the following string:

"((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'),
(2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))"

How can I convert this string back to tuples? I've tried to use split a few times but it's very messy and makes a list instead.

Desired output:

((1, 'Central Plant 1', 'http://egauge.com/'),
(2, 'Central Plant 2', 'http://egauge2.com/'))

Thanks for the help in advance!

Answer 1

You should use the literal_eval method from the ast module which you can read more about here .

>>> import ast
>>> s = "((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'),(2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))"
>>> ast.literal_eval(s)
((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'), (2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))

Answer 2

ast.literal_eval should do the trick— safely .

EG

>>> ast.literal_eval("((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'),
... (2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))")
((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'), (2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))

See this answer for more info on why not to use eval .

Answer 3

Using eval:

s="((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'), (2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))"
p=eval(s)
print p