question: public static List < String > toList ( String s ) { List < String > newList = new LinkedList < String > ( ) ; if ( s . startsWith ( "[" ) && s . endsWith ( "]" ) ) { s = s . substring ( 1 , s . length ( ) - 1 ) ; String [ ] entries = s . split ( "\\,\\s" ) ; for ( String entry : entries ) { newList . add ( entry ) ; } } else { throw new IllegalArgumentException ( "String is not from List.toString()" ) ; } return newList ; }
target:  Reads a String version of a List (should contain only strings) and creates a new List