How To Convert String To Object In Python

In this tutorial, we will learn how to convert a string to an object in Python. Converting a string to an object is useful when you want to evaluate a string as if it’s a variable or a function name.

For instance, in a configuration file, you might come across a string representation of a class or function name, and you’ll want to call this class or function directly in your code.

Step 1: Import the necessary modules

The first step is to import the required module, which is ast (Abstract Syntax Trees). This module helps us convert a string to various Python objects, like list, dictionary, and tuple.

1	import ast

Step 2: Define a string to be converted

For this tutorial, let’s assume we have a string that represents a list, dictionary, and tuple.

string_list = "[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]"

string_dict = "{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}"

string_tuple = "(1, 2, 3)"

Step 3: Convert the string to an object

To convert the strings to appropriate objects, we need to use the ast.literal_eval() function from the ast module.

object_list = ast.literal_eval(string_list)

object_dict = ast.literal_eval(string_dict)

object_tuple = ast.literal_eval(string_tuple)

Step 4: Print the result

Now that we have successfully converted our strings into objects, let’s print the results.

print(f"List Object: {object_list}")

print(f"Dictionary Object: {object_dict}")

print(f"Tuple Object: {object_tuple}")

After executing the above code, the output should be as follows:

List Object: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Dictionary Object: {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
Tuple Object: (1, 2, 3)

Full Code

Here is the full code for this tutorial:

import ast