How to convert tuple in string to tuple object?

Question

In Python 2.7, I have the following string:

"((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'),
(2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))"

How can I convert this string back to tuples? I've tried to use split a few times but it's very messy and makes a list instead.

Desired output:

((1, 'Central Plant 1', 'http://egauge.com/'),
(2, 'Central Plant 2', 'http://egauge2.com/'))

Thanks for the help in advance!

How did you get this string in the first place? Are you in control of that part of the process? What problem are you trying to solve? — Karl Knechtel, May 14 '13 at 03:51

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered May 14 '13 at 00:34

You should use the literal_eval method from the ast module which you can read more about here.

>>> import ast
>>> s = "((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'),(2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))"
>>> ast.literal_eval(s)
((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'), (2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

5

ast.literal_eval should do the trick—safely.

E.G.

>>> ast.literal_eval("((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'),
... (2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))")
((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'), (2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))

See this answer for more info on why not to use eval.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

Community

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answered May 14 '13 at 00:35

intuited

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 14 '13 at 00:33

0

Using eval:

s="((1, u'Central Plant 1', u'http://egauge.com/'), (2, u'Central Plant 2', u'http://egauge2.com/'))"
p=eval(s)
print p

answered May 14 '13 at 00:33

perreal

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How to convert tuple in string to tuple object?

3 Answers3