reading a list from a file

[Tim Williams]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Bear" <david.bear at asu.edu>


> I have a file that contains lists -- python lists. sadly, these are not
> pickled. These are lists that were made using a simple print list
> statement.
> 
> Is there an easy way to read this file into a list again?  I'm thinking I
> would have to 
> 
> 
> I was hoping there was a pythonic way of doing this..
> 

a = '[1,2,3,4,5]'
>>> b = eval(a)
>>> b
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> b[2]
3

HTH :)