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 which is basically a list in string format . . . i'm trying to turn it back into a list but i'm not sure a simple way to do it . i know one way but i'd rather not use regex

if i use temp.split() I get

temp_2 = ["['a','b','c']"]

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'>