> I would like to know how would I evaluate a string expression in python. > For example, if i say: >>>> a = "3*2" > I want to do something to evaluate the variable 'a' to give me 6. How > can I do this? > I think the "eval" built-in function is what you're after: >>> a = "3*2" >>> eval(a) 6 http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html