Convert a number enclosed in parentheses (string) to a negative integer (or float) using Python?

Question

In Python, what is the simplest way to convert a number enclosed in parentheses (string) to a negative integer (or float)?

For example, \'(4,301)\' to -4301, as commonly

Answer 1

This code could be a little bit longer, but straight forward and easy to maintain

from pyparsing import Word, nums, OneOrMore

integer = Word(nums)

text = "blah blah (4,301) blah blah " 

parser = OneOrMore(integer)

iterator = parser.scanString( text )

try:
    while True:
        part1 =  iterator.next()
        part2 =  iterator.next()
except:
    x =  part1[0][0][0] + '.' +part2[0][0][0]
    print -float(x)

Produces: -4.301