def remove_quotes(val):
 if (val is None):
  return
 if ((val[0] in ('"', "'")) and (val[0] == val[(-1)])):
  val = val[1:(-1)]
 return val

def remove_quotes ( val ) : if ( val is None ) : return if ( ( val [ 0 ] in ( '"' , "'" ) ) and ( val [ 0 ] == val [ ( - 1 ) ] ) ) : val = val [ 1 : ( - 1 ) ] return val
helper that removes surrounding quotes from strings .