Python converts formatted string to list

Question

I have the string "[u'foo']" (Yes, it includes square brackets and u'' ). I have to convert this to a list that looks like [u'foo'] .

list("[u'foo']") will not work.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

 >>> import ast >>> s = "[u'foo']" >>> ast.literal_eval(s) [u'foo'] 

documentation

Answer 2

 eval("[u'foo']", {'__builtins__':[]}, {})