Convert a string containing a python list to a javasctipt array

Question

I have this string:

items = "['item1', 'item2']"

i need it to be a javascript array like this:

items = ['item1', 'item2']

i try this and it works:

items.replace("]","").replace("[","").replaceAll("'","").split(",");

and the result I obtained was as expected:

['item1', 'item2']

The question is: can the same be done in a simpler way?

Answer 1

You can accomplish this very simply using a regex text replacement and JSON.parse() :

 const items = "['item1', 'item2']"; const array = JSON.parse(items.replace(/'/g, '\"')); console.log(array);

If you would like to avoid JSON.parse() altogether, we can fine-tune the text replacement and use the .split() method like this:

 const items = "['item1', 'item2']"; const array = items.replace(/\[|\]|\s|'/g,'').split(','); console.log(array);