title: How is a csv with columns of irregularly formatted lists imported into a pandas DataFrame?
body: <p>The following csv is composed of lists.  However, the lists of columns (2) <code>position_start</code> and (3) <code>position_end</code> are improperly formatted (i.e. there are no separating commas).</p>
  
  <p>I would like to read the csv into a four column pandas DataFrame.</p>
  
  <p>I’ve tried the following code, without success.</p>
  
  <pre><code>position=pd.read_csv(filename, delimiter='\t',index_col=0)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>CSV file</strong>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>,position_c,position_r_theta_phi,position_start,position_end
  0,"[14.533842862081656, 0.03208616222764249, 56.92541191588316]","[58.751477765706575, 0.2499741778590546, 0.00220768246933476]",[ 19271.0805564   17808.46240249  18693.4114863 ],[ 19270.18114729  18215.86140969  18693.4114863 ]
  1,"[15.565867354362126, 2.2766677669751516, 82.666319295054564]","[84.149865052813752, 0.1880523977235686, 0.1452305063941714]",[ 19301.1424449   17812.85092455  18719.15239368],[ 19242.18330777  18215.96205085  18719.15239368]
  2,"[-5.4087970793661952, 8.7687766840863333, 82.903514489531517]","[83.541242779224319, 0.12364001055133951, 2.1234950828837396]",[ 19424.05948468  18127.83826079  18719.38958887],[ 19077.31693912  17913.95893244  18719.38958887]
  3,"[5.4876143325782323, -5.6088702278284472, 22.368059246608027]","[23.704501909037916, 0.3373934168579211, 5.4868601633848755]",[ 19115.9817056   17864.06576253  18658.85413363],[ 19407.18754103  18148.97613687  18658.85413363]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thanks,</p>
  
  <p>Fei</p>