How to convert a String representation of a Dictionary to a dictionary in Python?

Dictionary object is easily convertible to string by str() function.

>>> D1={'1':1, '2':2, '3':3}
>>> D1
{'1': 1, '2': 2, '3': 3}
>>> str(D1)
"{'1': 1, '2': 2, '3': 3}"

To convert a string to dictionary, we have to ensure that the string contains a valid representation of dictionary. This can be done by eval() function.

>>> D1={'1':1, '2':2, '3':3}
>>> s=str(D1)
>>> s
"{'1': 1, '2': 2, '3': 3}"
>>> D2=eval(s)
>>> D2
{'1': 1, '2': 2, '3': 3}

Abstract Syntax Tree (ast) module of Python has literal_eval() method which safely evaluates valid Python literal structure.

>>> D1={'1':1, '2':2, '3':3}
>>> s=str(D1)
>>> import ast
>>> D2=ast.literal_eval(s)
>>> D2
{'1': 1, '2': 2, '3': 3}

Malhar Lathkar

Published on 29-Jan-2018 19:36:54

• Related Questions & Answers
• How to convert the string representation of a dictionary to a dictionary in python?
• How to convert a string to dictionary in Python?
• Convert string dictionary to dictionary in Python
• How to convert Python Dictionary to a list?
• How to convert a spreadsheet to Python dictionary?
• How to convert Javascript dictionary to Python dictionary?
• How to define a Python dictionary within dictionary?
• Python - Convert a set into dictionary
• How do I serialize a Python dictionary into a string, and then back to a dictionary?
• How to translate a python string according a given dictionary?
• How can I convert a Python Named tuple to a dictionary?
• Python program to create a dictionary from a string
• Python program to convert a list of tuples into Dictionary
• How to split a semicolon-separated string to a dictionary in Python?
• How to convert a DataFrame into a dictionary in Pandas?