On 03/14/2017 03:26 PM, DFS wrote: > I have a SQLite database with TEXT columns containing strings of the format: > > ['Item1: Value1 has,comma','Item2: has'apostrophe','Item3: Value3'] > > The brackets are part of the string. > > How can I unpack and access each item? > Item1: Value1 has,comma > Item2: has'apostrophe > Item3: Value3 >
This problem is probably unsolvable for all cases because the data is apparently allowed to freely contain the characters that provide the string with its structure. Still, there are clues that enable the parsing of most normal cases you are likely to encounter. This hinges on the fact that "','" is unlikely to occur in the actual data: s = "['Item1: Value1 has,comma','Item2: has'apostrophe','Item3: Value3']" items = s[2:-2].split("','") # Toss brackets, first and last quotes for thing in items: key, val = thing.split(": ") print "%s: %s" % (key, val) Output: ------- Item1: Value1 has,comma Item2: has'apostrophe Item3: Value3 -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list