title: How can I parse a dictionary string?
body: <p>I am trying to convert a string to a dictionary with <code>dict</code> function, like this</p>
  
  <pre><code>import json
  p = "{'id':'12589456'}"
  d = dict(p)
  print d['id']  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But I get the following error</p>
  
  <pre><code>ValueError: dictionary update sequence element #0 has length 1; 2 is required
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Why does it fail? How can I fix this?</p>