Convert strings to list Python

Question

list_val = '["apple", "blue", "green", "orange", "cherry", "white", "red", "violet"]'

print type(list_var)
str

print type(list_var[0])
'['

I read list_val values from a file and how to convert list_var to list ? so that list_var [0] should be 'apple'.

Answer 1

>>> list_val = '["apple", "blue", "green", "orange", "cherry", "white", "red", "violet"]'
>>> 
>>> from ast import literal_eval
>>> list_val = literal_eval(list_val)
>>> list_val[0]
'apple'

Answer 2

I recommend you use json .

import json
list_val = '["apple", "blue", "green", "orange", "cherry", "white", "red", "violet"]'
a = json.loads(list_val)
print a
# [u'apple', u'blue', u'green', u'orange', u'cherry', u'white', u'red', u'violet']
print type(a)
# <type 'list'>
print a[0]
# 'apple'

Answer 3

you can use eval function. Be careful what you pass to eval though, malicious things can happen!

list_var = eval(list_val)

Answer 4

Another way is using regex:

>>> import re
>>> list_val = '["apple", "blue", "green", "orange", "cherry", "white", "red", "violet"]'
>>> result = re.findall(r'\"([^\"]+)\"', list_val)
>>> result[0]
'apple'