How Can I Efficiently Convert a String Representation of a List into a Python List?

Converting a String Representation of a List into a List

To convert a string that represents a list into an actual list, we need to handle potential spaces within the string. While custom code using strip() and split() can be cumbersome, Python offers a simpler solution.

Solution

Utilizing the ast.literal_eval() function, we can parse the string and convert it into a list:

import ast

x = '[ "A","B","C" , " D"]'
x = ast.literal_eval(x)

After parsing, we may encounter extra spaces within the list elements. To remove these, we can use a list comprehension:

x = [n.strip() for n in x]

This will result in a clean list without any extra spaces:

['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']

ast.literal_eval()

The ast.literal_eval() function evaluates a string or expression node that contains only simple Python literals, such as:

• Strings
• Bytes
• Numbers
• Tuples
• Lists
• Dicts
• Sets
• Booleans
• None
• Ellipsis

This function is an efficient and convenient way to parse string representations of data structures in Python.

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