how to convert string to number?

[wang frank]

Hi,
 
I have struggling to efficiently convert a string list to number. Here is my problem. I have a file that contains lines such as:
 
data_1 1 1 2 3.5
 
After I read the data from the file by using readlines(), each line contains a string. I use the re moduel to split the line into ['data_1', '1','1','2','3.5']. I want to create a dictionary which contains
 
{'data_1':[1 1 2 3.5]}
 
The problem is I coud not efficiently find a way to convert the string to number. 
 
Does anyone know how to create such dictionary efficiently?
 
thanks
 
Frank
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