def _strip_quotes(str_q):
 if ((str_q[0] == str_q[(-1)]) and str_q.startswith(("'", '"'))):
  return str_q[1:(-1)]
 return str_q

def _strip_quotes ( str_q ) : if ( ( str_q [ 0 ] == str_q [ ( - 1 ) ] ) and str_q . startswith ( ( "'" , '"' ) ) ) : return str_q [ 1 : ( - 1 ) ] return str_q
helper function to strip off the or " off of a string .