Python - Parse a string and convert it into list

Question

I've a string

a = "sequence=1,2,3,4&counter=3,4,5,6"

How do I convert it into a list,ie

sequence = [1,2,3,4]
counter = [3,4,5,6]

Answer 1

Use urlparse.parse_qs (urllib.parse.parse_qs in Python 3.x) to parse query string:

>>> import urlparse
>>> a = "sequence=1,2,3,4&counter=3,4,5,6"
>>> {key: [int(x) for x in value[0].split(',')]
...  for key, value in urlparse.parse_qs(a).items()}
{'counter': [3, 4, 5, 6], 'sequence': [1, 2, 3, 4]}

Answer 2

import re

items = "sequence=1,2,3,4&counter=3,4,5,6".split('&')

pattern = re.compile(r'\d+')

for i in items:
    print [int(i) for i in re.findall(pattern, i)]