how to turn a "list of words" into a variable after config parser grabs them from an ini file

Question

I have a script that uses config parser to grab a list using config parser and an ini file using this because the end user will put in his or her own list to use in a sorting script

Example of a part of the config.ini file

[ConfigFile]
#L1 Category to Keep
l1cat=('Audio Terminal', 'Communications/Telephone', 'Microphones', 'Speakers', 'Tour Sound')

I have this in my script to grab the ini file

import configparser
from configparser import ConfigParser
config = ConfigParser()
config.read("SortingConfig.ini")
config.sections()


def variables(section):
    dict1 = {}
    options = config.options(section)
    for option in options:
        try:
            dict1[option] = config.get(section, option)
            if dict1[option] == -1:
                DebugPrint("skip: %s" % option)
        except:
            print("exception on %s!" % option)
            dict1[option] = None
    return dict1

the problem portion I am having.... is turning the

l1cat=('Audio Terminal', 'Communications/Telephone', 'Microphones', 'Speakers', 'Tour Sound')

into a useable variable value

further into my script I have this

xls_book = xlrd.open_workbook(infilepath, formatting_info = True, encoding_override = "cp1252", logfile = open(os.devnull, 'w'))
sheetname = xls_book.sheet_by_index(0).name

df = pd.read_excel(xls_book, engine = 'xlrd',parse_dates = ['Date'])
df['Date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Date'], format='%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S').dt.strftime('%m/%d/%y %H:%M')

## L1 Category keep if isin list
df = df.loc[df['L1 Category'].isin(l1cat)]

the Error I get back is TypeError: only list-like objects are allowed to be passed to isin(), you passed a [str]

before it needed to be dynamically changed by the end user, I could literally add l1cat = ('stuff','more stuff','even more stuff') as a regular variable and it worked perfectly

and the reason I am using config parser is because when I compile to an EXE, I need something that the variables can be changed anytime by a config file

I actually need it to work Just as if I had entered the l1cat = ('stuff','more stuff','even more stuff')directly into my script

---

The Fixed file looks like this still using teh same ini example as above

import configparser
from configparser import ConfigParser
from ast import literal_eval
config = ConfigParser()
config.read("SortingConfig.ini")
config.sections()


def variables(section):
    dict1 = {}
    options = config.options(section)
    for option in options:
        try:
            dict1[option] = config.get(section, option)
            if dict1[option] == -1:
                DebugPrint("skip: %s" % option)
        except:
            print("exception on %s!" % option)
            dict1[option] = None
    return dict1

#The Variable gets Defined
l1catV = literal_eval(config['ConfigFile']['l1cat'])

###Further down in my script as I need to use the variable
xls_book = xlrd.open_workbook(infilepath, formatting_info = True, encoding_override = "cp1252", logfile = open(os.devnull, 'w'))
sheetname = xls_book.sheet_by_index(0).name

df = pd.read_excel(xls_book, engine = 'xlrd',parse_dates = ['Date'])
df['Date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Date'], format='%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S').dt.strftime('%m/%d/%y %H:%M')

## L1 Category keep if isin list

##Variable gets used
df = df.loc[df['L1 Category'].isin(l1catV)]

Answer 1

You can use ast.literal_eval (doc) to parse the values:

txt = '''
[ConfigFile]
#L1 Category to Keep
l1cat=('Audio Terminal', 'Communications/Telephone', 'Microphones', 'Speakers', 'Tour Sound')
'''

import configparser
from configparser import ConfigParser
from ast import literal_eval

config = ConfigParser()
#####config.read_string(txt)###### - This portion was incorrect



my_tuple = literal_eval(config['ConfigFile']['l1cat'])

for val in my_tuple:
    print(val)

Prints:

Audio Terminal
Communications/Telephone
Microphones
Speakers
Tour Sound