python – Convert a String representation of a Dictionary to a dictionary?

python – Convert a String representation of a Dictionary to a dictionary?

You can use the built-in ast.literal_eval:

>>> import ast
>>> ast.literal_eval({muffin : lolz, foo : kitty})
{muffin: lolz, foo: kitty}

This is safer than using eval. As its own docs say:

>>> help(ast.literal_eval)
Help on function literal_eval in module ast:

literal_eval(node_or_string)
    Safely evaluate an expression node or a 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.

For example:

>>> eval(shutil.rmtree(mongo))
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File <stdin>, line 1, in <module>
  File <string>, line 1, in <module>
  File /opt/Python-2.6.1/lib/python2.6/shutil.py, line 208, in rmtree
    onerror(os.listdir, path, sys.exc_info())
  File /opt/Python-2.6.1/lib/python2.6/shutil.py, line 206, in rmtree
    names = os.listdir(path)
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: mongo
>>> ast.literal_eval(shutil.rmtree(mongo))
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File <stdin>, line 1, in <module>
  File /opt/Python-2.6.1/lib/python2.6/ast.py, line 68, in literal_eval
    return _convert(node_or_string)
  File /opt/Python-2.6.1/lib/python2.6/ast.py, line 67, in _convert
    raise ValueError(malformed string)
ValueError: malformed string

https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/json.html

JSON can solve this problem though its decoder wants double quotes around keys and values. If you dont mind a replace hack…

import json
s = {muffin : lolz, foo : kitty}
json_acceptable_string = s.replace(, )
d = json.loads(json_acceptable_string)
# d = {umuffin: ulolz, ufoo: ukitty}

NOTE that if you have single quotes as a part of your keys or values this will fail due to improper character replacement. This solution is only recommended if you have a strong aversion to the eval solution.

More about json single quote: jQuery.parseJSON throws “Invalid JSON” error due to escaped single quote in JSON

python – Convert a String representation of a Dictionary to a dictionary?

using json.loads:

>>> import json
>>> h = {foo:bar, foo2:bar2}
>>> d = json.loads(h)
>>> d
{ufoo: ubar, ufoo2: ubar2}
>>> type(d)
<type dict>