Converting list string to dictionary in Python

Here we have a scenario where if string is presented which has elements in it making it a list. But those elements can also represent a key-value pair making it dictionary. In this article we will see how to take such a list string and make it a dictionary.

With split and slicing

In this approach we use the split function to separate the elements as key value pair and also use slicing to convert the key value pairs into a dictionary format.

Example

stringA = '[Mon:3, Tue:5, Fri:11]'
# Given string
print("Given string : \n",stringA)
# Type check
print(type(stringA))
# using split
res = {sub.split(":")[0]: sub.split(":")[1] for sub in stringA[1:-1].split(", ")}
# Result
print("The converted dictionary : \n",res)
# Type check
print(type(res))

Output

Running the above code gives us the following result −

('Given string : \n', '[Mon:3, Tue:5, Fri:11]')

('The converted dictionary : \n', {'Fri': '11', 'Mon': '3', 'Tue': '5'})

With eval and replace

The eval function can get us the actual list from a string and then replace will convert each element into a key value pair.

Example

stringA = '[18:3, 21:5, 34:11]'
# Given string
print("Given string : \n",stringA)
# Type check
print(type(stringA))
# using eval
res = eval(stringA.replace("[", "{").replace("]", "}"))
# Result
print("The converted dictionary : \n",res)
# Type check
print(type(res))

Output

Running the above code gives us the following result −

('Given string : \n', '[18:3, 21:5, 34:11]')

('The converted dictionary : \n', {18: 3, 34: 11, 21: 5})