title: How to pass a list as an environment variable?
body: <p>I use a list as part of a Python program, and wanted to convert that to an environment variable. </p>
  
  <p>So, it's like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>list1 = ['a.1','b.2','c.3']
  for items in list1:
      alpha,number = items.split('.')
      print(alpha,number)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which gives me, as expected:</p>
  
  <pre><code>a 1
  b 2
  c 3
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But when I try to set it as an environment variable, as:</p>
  
  <pre><code>export LIST_ITEMS = 'a.1', 'b.2', 'c.3'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and do:</p>
  
  <pre><code>list1 = [os.environ.get("LIST_ITEMS")]
  for items in list1:
      alpha,number = items.split('.')
      print(alpha,number)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get an error: <code>ValueError: too many values to unpack</code></p>
  
  <p>How do I modify the way I pass the list, or get it so that I have the same output as without using env variables?</p>