>>> input = "[2,3,4,5]" >>> map(float, input.strip('[]').split(',')) [2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0] >>> A = map(float, input.strip('[]').split(',')) >>> print(A, type(A)) ([2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0], <type 'list'>)