Question: I know that to convert a dictionary to/from a string, I use `json.loads` and `json.dumps`. However, those methods fail when given a string representing a list of dictionaries. For example, 

```
sample_entry = [
    {"type": "test", "topic": "obama", "interval": "daily"},
    {"type": "test", "topic": "biden", "interval": "immediate"},
]

```

Converting that to a string with `str()` gives us 

```
"[{'topic': 'obama', 'interval': 'daily', 'type': 'test'}, {'topic': 'biden', 'interval': 'immediate', 'type': 'test'}]"

```

Is there an easy way of converting this back to a list of dictionaries? `eval` does precisely what I want, but I'm concerned about running it on a user-supplied string. 

Is there another way of accomplishing this that will be robust in the face of varying list lengths and variable white space?

EDIT: While json.loads(json.dumps(sample\_entry)) does indeed work, json.loads(str(sample\_entry)) does not. The difference, it seems, is where single quotes and double quotes are used. The data source I'm receiving this string from is unlikely to be consistent in use of ' vs ", so I'd like to account for both.

Answer: 
> 
> Converting that to a string with str() gives us...
> 
> 
> 

There's your problem right there. You shouldn't be using `str` to serialize data. There's no guarantee that the resulting string will be something that can be recovered back into the original object.

Instead of using `str()`, use `json.dumps`. I know you said you tried it and it didn't work, but it's quite robust when used on built-in objects, so I suspect you may have just accidentally made a typo. The example dict you give serializes perfectly:

```
>>> sample_entry = [
...     {"type": "test", "topic": "obama", "interval": "daily"},
...     {"type": "test", "topic": "biden", "interval": "immediate"},
... ]
>>>
>>> s = json.dumps(sample_entry)
>>> print(s)
[{"interval": "daily", "topic": "obama", "type": "test"}, {"interval": "immediate", "topic": "biden", "type": "test"}]
>>>
>>> d = json.loads(s)
>>> d
[{'interval': 'daily', 'topic': 'obama', 'type': 'test'}, {'interval': 'immediate', 'topic': 'biden', 'type': 'test'}]

```
A well-formed python data type can in most case be interpreted using [`ast.literal_eval`](https://docs.python.org/2/library/ast.html#ast.literal_eval)

```
import ast
ast.literal_eval("[{'topic': 'obama', 'interval': 'daily', 'type': 'test'}, {'topic': 'biden', 'interval': 'immediate', 'type': 'test'}]")
Out[38]: 
[{'interval': 'daily', 'topic': 'obama', 'type': 'test'},
 {'interval': 'immediate', 'topic': 'biden', 'type': 'test'}]

```