Can't convert list literal to string

Question

input = "[{'parentId': '3660050', 'id': '3813419', 'name': 'Diversity Report', 'parentName': 'Uber Crises'}, {'parentId': '3447845', 'id': '3447846', 'name': 'High', 'parentName': 'QA Intensity'}, {'parentId': '3446939', 'id': '3446940', 'name': 'High', 'parentName': 'Intensity'}, {'parentId': '3447834', 'id': '3447842', 'name': 'Disgust', 'parentName': 'QA Emotion'}, {'parentId': '3447822', 'id': '3447823', 'name': 'Negative', 'parentName': 'QA Sentiment'}, {'parentId': '3446760', 'id': '3446763', 'name': 'Neutral', 'parentName': 'Original Sentiment'}, {'parentId': '3446944', 'id': '3446947', 'name': 'Negative', 'parentName': 'Aggregated_Sentiment'}, {'parentId': '3446936', 'id': '3446938', 'name': 'Not Spam', 'parentName': 'Spam'}, {'parentId': '3446924', 'id': '3446932', 'name': 'Disgust', 'parentName': 'Emotion'}, {'parentId': '3720161', 'id': '3720163', 'name': 'Uber', 'parentName': 'Uber & Lyft'}, {'parentId': '3660050', 'id': '3723667', 'name': ""Waymo vs. Uber's Otto"", 'parentName': 'Uber Crises'}, {'parentId': '3660050', 'id': '3723665', 'name': 'Uber Sexism', 'parentName': 'Uber Crises'}, {'parentId': '3660050', 'id': '3660077', 'name': '#DeleteUber', 'parentName': 'Uber Crises'}]"

ast.literal_eval(input) or eval(input) still gives me a string type.

The goal is to get a list of dictionaries which I can iterate through.

It actually has double quotes "" around each side. Maybe that is the issue. — iuppiter, Apr 13 '17 at 16:01
I'd also like to point out that you used a `'` character in that one, and since it doesn't have an escape key and isn't quoted it's probably confusing the IDE — Matthew Ciaramitaro, Apr 13 '17 at 16:01
Where did this data come from? Try fixing it there rather than later — OneCricketeer, Apr 13 '17 at 16:05
Possible solution is to use triple quotes on the outside of the array. [see here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7487145/having-both-single-and-double-quotation-in-a-python-string) — Matthew Ciaramitaro, Apr 13 '17 at 16:05
I fixed it to 'Waymo vs. Ubers Otto' but I still have the same problem of a string after running ast.literal_eva(). — iuppiter, Apr 13 '17 at 16:10
Triple quotes is something I already tried as well, but alas to no avail. Always just gives me string type back. — iuppiter, Apr 13 '17 at 16:13
the following works in IDLE `input = "[{'1': '2'}, {'2' : '1', '3': '4'}]"` `type(eval(input))` outputs: `` — Matthew Ciaramitaro, Apr 13 '17 at 16:13
You are right. It works from my console but not with the IDE I was using. Thanks — iuppiter, Apr 13 '17 at 16:17
It looks like JSON, except it's got single-quotes where JSON should have double-quotes, also other errors. Still, a mention of Python's `json` module may be in order. — nigel222, Apr 13 '17 at 16:43

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 13 '17 at 16:34

input = """[{'parentId': '3660050', 'id': '3813419', 'name': 'Diversity Report', 'parentName': 'Uber Crises'}, {'parentId': '3447845', 'id': '3447846', 'name': 'High', 'parentName': 'QA Intensity'}, {'parentId': '3446939', 'id': '3446940', 'name': 'High', 'parentName': 'Intensity'}, {'parentId': '3447834', 'id': '3447842', 'name': 'Disgust', 'parentName': 'QA Emotion'}, {'parentId': '3447822', 'id': '3447823', 'name': 'Negative', 'parentName': 'QA Sentiment'}, {'parentId': '3446760', 'id': '3446763', 'name': 'Neutral', 'parentName': 'Original Sentiment'}, {'parentId': '3446944', 'id': '3446947', 'name': 'Negative', 'parentName': 'Aggregated_Sentiment'}, {'parentId': '3446936', 'id': '3446938', 'name': 'Not Spam', 'parentName': 'Spam'}, {'parentId': '3446924', 'id': '3446932', 'name': 'Disgust', 'parentName': 'Emotion'}, {'parentId': '3720161', 'id': '3720163', 'name': 'Uber', 'parentName': 'Uber & Lyft'}, {'parentId': '3660050', 'id': '3723667', 'name': "Waymo vs. Uber's Otto", 'parentName': 'Uber Crises'}, {'parentId': '3660050', 'id': '3723665', 'name': 'Uber Sexism', 'parentName': 'Uber Crises'}, {'parentId': '3660050', 'id': '3660077', 'name': '#DeleteUber', 'parentName': 'Uber Crises'}]"""

The above code should generate proper results under an eval call while preserving the apostrophe character in one of your strings. The error was specifically on the line with the apostrophe. For whatever reason it wouldn't evaluate correctly with an escape character, it likely tried to create a string. This solution works because instead of an escape character I just use a different type of string. Also, there should have only been one double quote around "Waymo vs. Uber's Otto" as shown. You probably thought that you could add the other ones because the string wasn't highlighting correctly, but the purpose of that was to tell you you made a mistake.

Can't convert list literal to string

1 Answers1