How do I convert a Ruby string with brackets to an array?

Question

I would like to convert the following string into an array/nested array:

str = \"[[this, is],[a, nested],[array]]\"

newarray = # this is what I need help w         


        

Answer 1

For a laugh:

 ary = eval("[[this, is],[a, nested],[array]]".gsub(/(\w+?)/, "'\\1'") )
 => [["this", "is"], ["a", "nested"], ["array"]]

Disclaimer: You definitely shouldn't do this as eval is a terrible idea, but it is fast and has the useful side effect of throwing an exception if your nested arrays aren't valid