title: Change string to list datatype
body: <p>How can I change the data type from string to list and also remove the single qoutes outside?</p>
  <pre><code>x = '[&quot;a&quot;,&quot;b&quot;]'
  type(x)
  &gt;&gt;&gt; str
  </code></pre>
  <p>Desired output is</p>
  <pre><code>x = [&quot;a&quot;,&quot;b&quot;]
  type(x)
  &gt;&gt;&gt; list
  </code></pre>