Parsing elements in Python from SQL Database

Question

in Python v3.6: I have an entry coming in from database as a "single" string as follows:

'[snp500, vix]'

However I wish to read it as as a "list" of strings

['snp500', 'vix']

Can you please help how can I achieve this?

Which database and connector package are you using? And what is the type of the column in the database? — snakecharmerb
– snakecharmerb, Commented Jun 26, 2021 at 17:23

Kraigolas · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-26 17:18:03Z

1

If you have

x = '[snp500, vix]'

You want to split around the [ brackets:

x = '[snp500, vix]'[1:-1].split(", ")
# ['np500', 'vi']

A safer method would be to use re:

import re
re.split(",\s*", '[snp500, vix]'[1:-1])

This solution allows for 0 or more spaces after the comma.

answered Jun 26, 2021 at 17:18

Kraigolas

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