Convert string to list in python or read xml data as list

Question

So I'm having an issue where when I read in info from an xml file. The data it reads in is supposed to be a list of numbers but when I read it in, it comes as a string. Is there a way to read xml data as a list or a way to convert a string to a list.

Eg I get the data from the xml as say [1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0] and if I check the type it says its a string, ie the whole thing is a string including the brackets and the comma.

Can't wrap my head around how to convert this back to a list of numbers

[float(x) for x in mystring.lstrip('[').rstrip(']').strip().split(',')] — Alan Kavanagh
– Alan Kavanagh, Commented Dec 3, 2017 at 1:18
@AK47 What a magnificent one-liner! Not very helpful for a beginner though... — Atto Allas
– Atto Allas, Commented Dec 3, 2017 at 1:25
@AK47 Yes, that's a good method, worth an upvote (I never even thought about eval()! Ususally I avoid it like the plague, but this might be a real application for it!) — Atto Allas
– Atto Allas, Commented Dec 3, 2017 at 1:27
[float(x) for x in mystring.lstrip('[').rstrip(']').strip().split(',')] – AK47 38 mins ago This worked out brilliantly! Thank you!! — dege
– dege, Commented Dec 3, 2017 at 1:57
@dege the eval() command is cleaner and works in python2 and python3 — Alan Kavanagh
– Alan Kavanagh, Commented Dec 3, 2017 at 18:06

Alan Kavanagh · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-03 01:22:57Z

4

You can use eval() if you want to convert your string to a list of floats

>>> string = '[1.0, 2.0, 3.0]'

>>> print(type(string))
<type 'str'>

>>> mylist = eval(string)

>>> print(type(mylist))
<type 'list'>

>>> print([type(x) for x in mylist])
[<type 'float'>, <type 'float'>, <type 'float'>]

>>> print(mylist)
[1.0, 2.0, 3.0]

answered Dec 3, 2017 at 1:22

Alan Kavanagh

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4 Comments

dege Over a year ago

Ah forgot to mention I'm trying this in python. So the eval command doesn't work as it's a keyword in maya's version of python libraries

Alan Kavanagh Over a year ago

eval() is a builtin for both python2 and python3

dege Over a year ago

yeah buy maya has it's version of eval() as well so it overwrites python's eval() unfortunately.

dege Over a year ago

I stand corrected... eval() does work and it is a lot easier... noob mistake of calling maya's version of eval() as maya.cmds.eval() instead of python eval()... I need coffee

Alan Kavanagh · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-03 01:27:01Z

2

For this, you would use the str.split() builtin method.

Set x = "[1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0]"

First of all, get rid of the square brackets around the string:

x = x[1:-1] (x is now "1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0", a long string)

Then, split the string to form a list of strings:

x = x.split(',') (x is now ["1.0", "2.0", "3.0", "4.0", "5.0"], a list of strings)

Then, convert all of these strings into floats (as I assume you want that):

x = [float(i) for i in x] (x is now [1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0], a list of floats)

edited Dec 3, 2017 at 1:27

Alan Kavanagh

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answered Dec 3, 2017 at 1:21

Atto Allas

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