Python and read text file that contains lists with strings and numbers -

this similar question many not quite same. have text file has 400,000 lines of text. each line list. example looks [ 'a','b',1,2,'c',3,'d , , e string', 45]

i can read each line of text file following code:

with open('myfile.txt') f:     content = f.readlines() 

the problem each line read string. each item of list. thought (for each line):

content[line].split(',') 

this works, run problem. many times in text file have string in list has comma in (from above had 'd , , e string'). don't want string split want 1 item.

if doesn't make since want take line text file [ 'a','b',1,2,'c',3,'d , , e string', 45] , want 8 separate elements

'a' 'b' 1  2 'c' 3 'd , , e string' 45 

thanks help!

dsm right

from ast import literal_eval  # use generator  # instead of allocating  # 400 000 lists @ time your_lists = (literal_eval(s) s in open('filename.txt'))