[Tutor] list to string and string to list

[johnf]

I am dealing with a database field that can only store strings.
I want to save the list to the field and when I retrieve the string convert it 
back to a list.

But this does NOT work.
mylist=[1,2,3,4]
mystr=str(mylist)

newlist= list(mystr)

I keep thinking there must be a simple way of get this done.
-- 
John Fabiani