code: def fuzzy_subset(str_):
      
      if str_ is None:
          return str_
      if ':' in str_:
          return smart_cast(str_, slice)
      if str_.startswith('['):
          return smart_cast(str_[1:-1], list)
      else:
          return smart_cast(str_, list)
docs: converts a string into an argument to list_take