A problem with list

[gawel]

export at hope.cz wrote:
> The following code
> ##############
> import string
> MyList=['abc','def']
> for i in MyList:
> print i
> ###############
> 
> works as I expect that is I get
> abc
> def
> 
> but when I have Mylist in a file and I read it from the file it does
> not work as I expect.
> #########
> import string
> ff=open('C:\\Robotp\\MyFile.txt','r') # read MyList from a file
> MyList=ff.read()
> for i in MyList:
> print i
> ###########
> I will get
> [
> '
> a
> b
> c
> '
> ,
> '
> d
> e
> f
> '
> ]
> 
> where my MyFile.txt looks like this:
> ['abc','def']
> 
> Where is a problem?
> Thanks for help
> Lad
> 

That's quite simple. Your file contain a string, not a list
You must use eval(your_list_as_string).


 >>> f = open('/tmp/list')
 >>> f.seek(0)
 >>> s = f.read()
 >>> s
"['adc','def']\n"
 >>> l = eval(s)
 >>> l
['adc', 'def']
 >>> for i in l:
...     print i
...
adc
def

gawel