Utility function to unquote a string. It supports all kinds of python quotes.

unquote_str.py

import re
import ast

_QUOTED_STR_REGEX = re.compile(r'(^\"(?:\\.|[^\"\\])*\"$)|'
                               r'(^\'(?:\\.|[^\'\\])*\'$)')
                               # older version (not very strong): (^\'\'\'(\s+)?(((?!\'\'\').)*)?(\s+)?\'\'\'$)
_TRIPLE_QUOTED_STR_REGEX = re.compile(r'(^\"\"\"(\s+)?(([^\"]|\"([^\"]|\"[^\"]))*(\"\"?)?)?(\s+)?(?:\\.|[^\"\\])?\"\"\"$)|'
                                                                                                 # Unescaped quotes at the end of a string generates 
                                                                                                 # "SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal", 
                                                                                                 # so we don't account for those kind of strings as quoted.
                                      r'(^\'\'\'(\s+)?(([^\']|\'([^\']|\'[^\']))*(\'\'?)?)?(\s+)?(?:\\.|[^\'\\])?\'\'\'$)', flags=re.DOTALL)

def _is_quoted(text:str) -> bool:
    return bool(_QUOTED_STR_REGEX.match(text)) or \
        bool(_TRIPLE_QUOTED_STR_REGEX.match(text))
  
def unquote_str(text:str) -> str:
    """
    Unquote a maybe quoted string representation. 
    If the string is not detected as being a quoted representation, it returns the same string as passed.
    It supports all kinds of python quotes: C{\"\"\"}, C{'''}, C{"} and C{'}.
    """
    if _is_quoted(text):
        s = ast.literal_eval(text)
        assert isinstance(s, str)
        return s
    return text