How to convert comma-delimited string to list in Python?

Given a string that is a sequence of several values separated by a commma:

mStr = 'A,B,C,D,E' 

How do I convert the string to a list?

mList = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E']

Solution 1:

You can use the str.split method.

>>> my_string = 'A,B,C,D,E'
>>> my_list = my_string.split(",")
>>> print my_list
['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E']

If you want to convert it to a tuple, just

>>> print tuple(my_list)
('A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E')

If you are looking to append to a list, try this:

>>> my_list.append('F')
>>> print my_list
['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F']

Solution 2:

In the case of integers that are included at the string, if you want to avoid casting them to int individually you can do:

mList = [int(e) if e.isdigit() else e for e in mStr.split(',')]

It is called list comprehension, and it is based on set builder notation.

ex:

>>> mStr = "1,A,B,3,4"
>>> mList = [int(e) if e.isdigit() else e for e in mStr.split(',')]
>>> mList
>>> [1,'A','B',3,4]