Extract arguments from string with python function

Question

I'm looking for a way to extract arguments embedded into python function returned to me as strings.

For example:

'create.copy("Node_A", "Information", False)'
# expected return: ["Node_A", "Information", "False"]

'create.new("Node_B")'
# expected return: ["Node_B"]

'delete("Node_C")'
# expected return: ["Node_C"]

My first approach was regular expressions like this:

re.match(r"("(.+?")")

But it returns None all the time.

How can I get list of this arguments?

BTW: I'm forced to use Python 2.7 and only built-in functions :(

Answer 1

Here an example without any external modules and totally compatible with python2.7. Slice the string w.r.t. the position of the brackets, clean it from extra white-spaces and split at ,.

f = 'create.copy("Node_A", "Information", False)'
i_open = f.find('(')
i_close = f.find(')')

print(f[i_open+1: i_close].replace(' ', '').split(','))

Output

['"Node_A"', '"Information"', 'False']

Remark:

• not for nested functions.

• the closing bracket can also be found by reversing the string

  i_close = len(f) - f[::-1].find(')') - 1