How to turn a 'string list' into a real list?

Question

I am opening a .txt file and have to use a list inside of it for a function I am writing. This is one of the lists given in the text file:

\'[24, 72         


        

Answer 1

You can use ast.literal_eval:

In [8]: strs='[24, 72, 95, 100, 59, 80, 87]\n'

In [9]: from ast import literal_eval

In [10]: literal_eval(strs)
Out[10]: [24, 72, 95, 100, 59, 80, 87]

help on ast.literal_eval:

In [11]: literal_eval?
Type:       function
String Form:
File:       /usr/lib/python2.7/ast.py
Definition: literal_eval(node_or_string)
Docstring:
Safely evaluate an expression node or a string containing a Python
expression.  The string or node provided may only consist of the following
Python literal structures: strings, numbers, tuples, lists, dicts, booleans,
and None.