Python convert formatted string to list

Question

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

list("[u'foo']") won't work.

Any suggestions?

• Mike: Can you clarify? What's the list supposed to contain?
• habnabit: Where does the string come from? That's not a very useful format to have; if you're generating it, consider using a better format.
• Albert: I get it from GAE bulkloader bulk_download. It's a list property in the datastore. It get's downloaded and ends up looking like that in my csv file. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

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

documentation

Answer 2

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

• habnabit: You know that passing empty dicts for locals and globals isn't enough to 'secure' eval, yes? This still gives an attacker basically full access to your system.
• leoluk: POC: eval('__import__("os").getcwd()', {}, {}), I edited my answer
• habnabit: @leoluk, that doesn't 'prove' anything. eval("[x for x in type(type(1)).__bases__[0].__subclasses__() if x.__name__ == 'file'][0]('/etc/passwd').readline()", {}, {}) gives me the first line of /etc/passwd on my system.
• Albert: @Aaron, cool... By the way, if I can't use literal_eval(), what would you suggest as a 'secure' eval?
• habnabit: @Albert, I would suggest modifying your desires so that you don't have to.