How to parse a string and return a nested array?

Question

I want a Python function that takes a string, and returns an array, where each item in the array is either a character, or another array of this kind. Nested arrays are mark

Answer 1

One rather quick and nasty approach (just for something different):

import json, re

def foo(x):
    # Split continuous strings
    # Match consecutive characters
    matches = re.findall('[a-z]{2,}', x)
    for m in matches:
        # Join with ","
        x = x.replace(m, '","'.join(y for y in list(m))) 

    # Turn curvy brackets into square brackets
    x = x.replace(')', '"],"')
    x = x.replace('(', '",["')

    # Wrap whole string with square brackets
    x = '["'+x+'"]'

    # Remove empty entries
    x = x.replace('"",', '')
    x = x.replace(',""', '')

    try:
        # Load with JSON
        return json.loads(x)
    except:
        # TODO determine error type
        return "error"

def main():
    print foo("abc")     # ['a', 'b', 'c']
    print foo("a(b)c")   # ['a', ['b'], 'c']
    print foo("a(b(c))") # ['a', ['b', ['c']]]
    print foo("a(b))c")  # error

    print foo('a((b(c))d)(e)') # ['a', [['b', ['c']], 'd'], ['e']]