Convert string to list. Python [string.split() acting weird]

Question

temp = \"[\'a\',\'b\',\'c\']\"
print type(temp)
#string

output = [\'a\',\'b\',\'c\']
print type(output)
#list

so i have this temporary string whic

Answer 1

Use ast.literal_eval():

Safely evaluate an expression node or a Unicode or Latin-1 encoded string containing a Python expression. The string or node provided may only consist of the following Python literal structures: strings, numbers, tuples, lists, dicts, booleans, and None.

>>> from ast import literal_eval
>>> temp = "['a','b','c']"
>>> l = literal_eval(temp)
>>> l
['a', 'b', 'c']
>>> type(l)
<type 'list'>

Answer 2

You can use eval:

>>> temp = "['a', 'b', 'c']"
>>> temp_list = eval(temp)
>>> temp_list
['a', 'b', 'c']
>>> temp_list[1]
b