get a list from a string

[simon kagwe]

Hi,

I have a string "distances = [[1,1,1,1],[2,2,2,2]]". I want to create a
variable called distances whose value is the list [[1,1,1,1],[2,2,2,2]]. How can
I go about that? I know I can use setattr, but how do I create the list from the
string?

Regards,
Simon