title: Converting a string representation of an array to an actual array in python
body: <p>Hi doing some stuff over a network and wondering if there is any way of converting python array as a string back into a python array.. for example</p>
  
  <pre><code>x = "[1,2,3,4]"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>converting x to</p>
  
  <pre><code>x_array = [1,2,3,4]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Bonus if it can also work for numpy multidimensional arrays!</p>