Question

(please help me clarify the title)

This is what I’d like to do:

s = "'arg1', 'arg2', foo='bar', baz='qux'"
def m(*args, **kwargs):
  return args, kwargs

args, kwargs = m(magic(s))
# args = ['arg1', 'arg2']
# kwargs = {'foo': 'bar', 'baz'='qux'}

What is the definition of magic()?

Parsing the string myself is a last resort since it’s fraught with pitfalls (what if arg1 has a comma in it? what if arg2 has quotes in it? etc).

Answer 1

With s and m defined as you have them:

>>> args, kwargs = eval('m(%s)' % s)
>>> args
('arg1', 'arg2')
>>> kwargs
{'foo': 'bar', 'baz': 'qux'}