#your string a="[a,b,c]" print(a) #getting the elements def getElements(a): b = [ ] #deleting unwanted chars newstr = a.replace(",", "") a = newstr.replace("[", "") a = a.replace("]", "") #appending elements to list b for i in range(len(a)): b.append(a[i]) return b b = getElements(a) print ( b )