df <- data.frame(cat = c("c(\\\"BPT\\\", \"BP\")", "c(\"BP2\", \"BP\")", "c(\"BPT\", \"BP\")", "c(\"CN\", \"NC\")"))
df$cat <- as.character(df$cat)
unlist(lapply(gsub('\\', '', df$cat, fixed=TRUE), function(x) eval(parse(text=x))[[1]]))
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