5

How would I convert the following string to an array with Python (this string could have an indefinite number of items)?

'["Foo","Bar","Baz","Woo"]'

This is definitely a string representation as well. type() gave:

<class 'str'>

I got it.

interestedin = request.POST.get('interestedIn')[1:-1].split(',')

interested = []

for element in interestedin:
    interested.append(element[1:-1])

Where request.POST.get('interestedIn') gave the '["Foo","Bar","Baz","Woo"]' string list "thing".

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11
  • 2
    That looks like a list, not a string... Commented Apr 25, 2018 at 13:29
  • 7
    Possible duplicate of How to convert a string to a list in Python? Commented Apr 25, 2018 at 13:30
  • are you talking about the element inside of this list ? Commented Apr 25, 2018 at 13:30
  • That looks like it's a duplicate question – I am sure I've seen at least several variants. Anyway, what did you try & why did it not work? Commented Apr 25, 2018 at 13:31
  • 3
    ast.literal_eval() or json.loads() ... Commented Apr 25, 2018 at 13:31

4 Answers 4

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23

You can do this

import ast

list = '["Foo","Bar","Baz","Woo"]'
list = ast.literal_eval(list)
print list
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2 Comments

@GCien This should be marked as the correct answer.
That seems the way to go to get the Life boat badge: Add an answer without any explanation whatsoever.
7

No-package solution

You can use the eval function:

list = eval('["Foo", "Bar", "Baz", "Woo"]')
print (list)

# ['Foo', 'Bar', 'Baz', 'Woo']

Alternative solution

Based on baptx's comment, an alternative way (probably a better one) is to use the ast package:

from ast import literal_eval

list = literal_eval('["Foo", "Bar", "Baz", "Woo"]')
print (list)

# ['Foo', 'Bar', 'Baz', 'Woo']
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2 Comments

It looks like this can be dangerous if the data is untrusted since it can execute code, I read it is recommended to use ast.literal_eval instead: stackoverflow.com/questions/15197673/…
Though this answer is about Python (about which, I admit, know nothing), not about PHP, but even so... I still believe that this statement is true even for Python: "Rasmus Lerdorf, the creator of PHP, once wrote that »if eval() is the answer, you're almost certainly asking the wrong question«"!
4

Dealing with string '["Foo","Bar","Baz","Woo"]':

str = '["Foo","Bar","Baz","Woo"]'
str1 = str.replace(']', '').replace('[', '')
l = str1.replace('"', '').split(",")
print l # ['Foo', 'Bar', 'Baz', 'Woo'] A list

If you mean using the Python array module, then you could do like this:

import array as ar

x = ar.array('c')  # Character array
for i in ['Foo', 'Bar', 'Baz', 'Woo']: x.extend(ar.array('c', i))
print x  #array('c', 'FooBarBazWoo')

It will be much simpler if you consider using NumPy though:

import numpy as np

y = np.array(['Foo', 'Bar', 'Baz', 'Woo'])
print y #  ['Foo' 'Bar' 'Baz' 'Woo']
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1 Comment

First option ruins your data if any of the elements contain a [ or ] as part of its own text. Second and third options do not start from a string and have nothing to do to string to array or list conversion.
2

You can also do this:

import json

json.loads('["Foo", "Bar", "Baz", "Woo"]')
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