Convert string representation of list to list when elements are not encased in quotes

Question

Similar to Convert string representation of list to list but consider the elements in the list are not encased in quotes, e.g

x = '[a, b, c, ab, adc, defg]'

How could you convert this to a list of string elements in python?

['a', 'b', 'c', 'ab', 'adc', 'defg']

Where did you get `x` from? Why is it in that format to begin with? — jonrsharpe, Oct 23 '19 at 10:59
Its from a SQL query where the underlying data structure is `array` — ZeroStack, Oct 23 '19 at 11:10
Can whatever library you're using to access the DB not parse that for you? — jonrsharpe, Oct 23 '19 at 11:11
It's via athena, thanks for the suggestion, certainly worth exploring this route but I don't know how yet. — ZeroStack, Oct 23 '19 at 11:19
I think it is worth it, because otherwise you could get into all sorts of problems when your elements also contain characters like `,`. — jonrsharpe, Oct 23 '19 at 11:48

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 23 '19 at 10:58

4

As it's a string, you can take the square brackets off and split by your delimiter:

>>> x = '[a, b, c, ab, adc, defg]'
>>> x[1:-1].split(', ')

['a', 'b', 'c', 'ab', 'adc', 'defg']

answered Oct 23 '19 at 10:58

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 23 '19 at 10:59

0

This should do the trick:

>>> x = '[a, b, c, ab, adc, defg]'
>>> [i.strip(',[]') for i in x.split()]
['a', 'b', 'c', 'ab', 'adc', 'defg']

But of course, this assumes this exact format and nothing else more complicated

answered Oct 23 '19 at 10:59

Ofer Sadan

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 23 '19 at 11:01

0

Below

x = '[a, b, c, ab, adc, defg]'
l = x[x.find('[') + 1: x.find(']')].split(',')
print(l)

answered Oct 23 '19 at 11:01

balderman

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 23 '19 at 11:02

0

You could do following:

import re
x = '[a, b, c, ab, adc, defg]'
x = re.sub(r"[\[\]]", "", x)
split_x = x.split(',')
print(split_x)

answered Oct 23 '19 at 11:02

Masudur Rahman

4 Answers4