title: How do I turn my string into an array? (JSON.parse errors)
body: <p>How do I turn a string that resembles an array into an actual array?  This thread advised that I should use <code>JSON.parse</code> -- <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35008941/convert-string-into-array-in-rails">Convert string into Array in rails</a>, but when I go to try that, I get an error</p>
  
  <pre><code>localhost:nightminer satishp$ rails console
  Running via Spring preloader in process 9674
  Loading development environment (Rails 5.0.6)
  irb(main):001:0&gt; JSON.parse("['2de33']")
  JSON::ParserError: 409: unexpected token at ''2de33']'
      from /usr/local/Cellar/ruby/2.4.2_1/lib/ruby/2.4./json/common.rb:156:in `parse'
      from /usr/local/Cellar/ruby/2.4.2_1/lib/ruby/2.4./json/common.rb:156:in `parse'
      from (irb):1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any advice on how to get my array of strings is appreciated.  Note I can't change the input (I can't remove the single quotes).</p>