Convert a string tuple to a tuple

Question

I have a user entered string which is already in tuple format and would like to convert/cast it to a actual tuple in python. How can I do this? E.g:

strTup = '(5, 6)'

Would like to convert the above to the tuple (5, 6). I tried tuple(strTup) which did not work as it made each character into its own tuple.

See [the docs](https://docs.python.org/2/library/ast.html#ast.literal_eval). — jonrsharpe, Jul 29 '14 at 19:04
Thanks @JoranBeasley, I hadn't even heard of the ast module; pretty neat! — oscilatorium, Jul 29 '14 at 19:11
See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15197673/using-pythons-eval-vs-ast-literal-eval and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1087255/use-of-eval-in-python/1087625#1087625 — CT Zhu, Jul 29 '14 at 19:30

score 23 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 30 '21 at 10:00

23

You can pass it to eval() (note: this is unsafe):

Just do:

    <!-- language: python -->
    strTup = '(5,6)'
    eval(strTup)

edited Dec 30 '21 at 10:00

answered Jul 29 '14 at 20:37

Luna Feng

18

This is very bad advice!!! A user entered string can arbitrary complex (and potentially malicious) code, and you will just blindly evaluate it on your server! Instead, use `ast.literal_eval`. – crypdick Sep 20 '19 at 23:32
1

Do note that if you are sure about the data, and the user has no realistic way of generating that data, you can still use `eval`, using `ast.literal_eval` is the way to go. – Muneeb Ahmad Khurram Mar 10 '23 at 14:14

1 Answers1