List of list in string format, want to convert to list of list (Python)

Question

I'm receiving a message that is a list of lists but is recognized as a string in Python. I can't figure out how to get Python to interpret the string as a list of lists, is there a simple way to do this? An example of the format I'm dealing with is shown below:

>>soc = '[["hello","world"],["foo","bar"]]'
>>type(soc)
<type 'str'>

I want to convert this string into an unaltered list of lists:

>>soc
[["hello","world"],["foo","bar"]]
>>type(soc)
<type 'list'>

I'd appreciate any help offered, thanks!

Possible duplicate of Converting a string representation of a list in python to a list object — Arun
– Arun, Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 4:53

jpp · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-14 23:52:28Z

0

Use ast.literal_eval:

import ast

soc = '[["hello","world"],["foo","bar"]]'

ast.literal_eval(soc)

# [['hello', 'world'], ['foo', 'bar']]

answered Feb 14, 2018 at 23:52

jpp

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G_M · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-15 00:02:09Z

0

You could use json.loads

>>> import json
>>> json.loads(soc)
[['hello', 'world'], ['foo', 'bar']]

answered Feb 15, 2018 at 0:02

G_M

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Comments

f5r5e5d · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-15 04:47:01Z

0

why not the builtin eval function

soc = eval('[["hello","world"],["foo","bar"]]')
type(soc)
Out[5]: list

soc
Out[6]: [['hello', 'world'], ['foo', 'bar']]

soc[1][0]
Out[7]: 'foo'

and now for the expected objections about 'safety'...

answered Feb 15, 2018 at 4:47

f5r5e5d

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