How do I evaluate string lists in Python

Question

I'm trying to make a script that evaluates a word to see whether or not its parts add up to 23 in any way (all four operations).

I've gotten it down to creating a string list of possible equations:

answerList = [12+15+12,12+15-12,12+15/12,...]

The problem I'm now getting is that I cannot get them back out of the lists in integer format to see whether or not they actually equal 23/32.

Answer 1

Check out the eval() function

>>> eval("12+15+12")
39
>>> eval("12+15/12")
13

Then, you can just loop through the list, calling eval on each while doing something with the result.

Answer 2

If you store your data like your example it will automatically convert them to integer anyway eg :

>>> answerList = [12+15+12,12+15-12,12+15/12, ...]
>>> answerList
[39, 15, 13, ...]

However, if you want to store it and print it out which equation has result 23, your need to store them as a string then use eval to convert them to int to check that it equal to 23 or not then print out the equation.

answerList = ['12+15+12','12+15-12','12+15/12']
for equation in answerList :
  if eval(equation) == 23 :
    print equation