yo! thank you everone! here's how i finally did it: converting the string into a list: input = net.receiveUDPData() input = list(eval(input[0:-2])) converting the list into a string: sendout = "%.6f %.6f %.6f;\n" % tuple(winningvector) maybe i'll even find a way to generalize the list2string bit, so it accepts arbitrary sized lists... thanks, robin