import array as arr
output = arr.array('b', [ord(c) for c in 'abcdef'])

will output

array('b', [97, 98, 100, 101, 102])

Of course, you have to remember to convert back to characters with chr(), whenever you need to use them as letters/strings.

You can use literal_eval in the ast module

>>> from ast import literal_eval
>>> s = "['a',['b','c','d'],'e']"
>>> print(literal_eval(s))
['a', ['b', 'c', 'd'], 'e']

If you just want the original list-of-dicts back, you can use ast.literal_eval:

import ast
xxx = [{'hi':'there'}]
s = str(xxx)
print(s)
pring(type(s))
yyy = ast.literal_eval(s)
print(yyy)
print(type(yyy))

Output:

[{'hi': 'there'}]
<class 'str'>
[{'hi': 'there'}]
<class 'list'>

The suggestion to use JSON is also a good one. Be sure to use json.dumps instead of just converting to string, so you get the right kinds of quotation marks.

Like this:

>>> text = 'a,b,c'
>>> text = text.split(',')
>>> text
[ 'a', 'b', 'c' ]

This gives you the 1,2,3 that you asked for.

",".join(str(x) for x in arr)

Nice solution, a few suggestions:

• The function name convert_to_int_array seems too general. Consider a more specific name, for example, extract_numbers, or something similar.
• There is no need to initialize results_as_array to None.
• Mapping a list of strings to integers:

  for index in range(0, len(results_as_array)):
      results_as_array[index] = int(results_as_array[index].strip())
  return results_as_array
  

  looks like the job for map:

  return list(map(int, results_as_array))
  

  Since the result of map is a generator, it needs to be converted to a list with list.
• Tests: I noticed this line:

  draw_result = "04-15-17-25-41" # change to "01-12 + 08-20" or "04-15-17-25-41" or "03-23-27-34-37, Mega Ball: 13" to test
  

  testing by changing draw_result manually it is time-consuming. A better way would be to keep the tests in a dictionary and to use assert. For example:

  tests = {
        "04-15-17-25-41": [4, 15, 17, 25, 41],
        "01-12 + 08-20": [1, 12, 8, 20],
        "03-23-27-34-37, Mega Ball: 13": [3, 23, 27, 34, 37]
  }
  
  for lottery_string, expected_output in tests.items():
        assert expected_output == convert_to_int_array(lottery_string)
  

  If you want to explore more "unit testing" have a look at unittest.

Alternative approach:

1. Remove , Mega Ball: 13 if exists
2. Extract all numbers with a regular expression

import re

def extract_numbers(draw_result):
    draw_result = draw_result.split(',')[0]
    matches = re.findall(r'\d+', draw_result)
    return list(map(int, matches))