In Python, there are two different split methods you can use to break up a string into a number of substrings, based on a particular separator. If you know exactly what character(s) your separator will be - e.g. exactly one space - the you can use the method in the string class. By if your separator is less well defined - e.g. if it's one or more space characters - then you'll want to use the split within the re class.
import re
space = re.compile(r'\s+')
data ="Perl Python PHP Prolog Pascal"
langs = data.split(" ")
print langs
langs = space.split(data)
print langs
How does that run?
['Perl', 'Python', '', '', 'PHP', 'Prolog\tPascal']
['Perl', 'Python', 'PHP', 'Prolog', 'Pascal']
The first split looks fairly poor - we've split at single space characters BUT the input string had multiple spaces in one place, and a tab in another
The second split - on a regular expression "one or more white space characters" worked much better, and is typically what you might use for data that was user entered or user edited.
There's a new example -
[source here] - added, January 2011. Subject covered on our
Python Courses.
(written 2007-03-15, updated 2011-01-29)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Y108 - Python - String Handling [324] The backtick operator in Python and Perl - (2005-05-25)
[463] Splitting the difference - (2005-10-13)
[496] Python printf - (2005-11-15)
[560] The fencepost problem - (2006-01-10)
[773] Breaking bread - (2006-06-22)
[903] Pieces of Python - (2006-10-23)
[943] Matching within multiline strings, and ignoring case in regular expressions - (2006-11-25)
[954] Splitting Pythons in Bradford - (2006-11-29)
[970] String duplication - x in Perl, * in Python and Ruby - (2006-12-07)
[1195] Regular Express Primer - (2007-05-20)
[1517] Python - formatting objects - (2008-01-24)
[1608] Underlining in Perl and Python - the x and * operator in use - (2008-04-12)
[1876] Python Regular Expressions - (2008-11-08)
[2284] Strings as collections in Python - (2009-07-12)
[2406] Pound Sign in Python Program - (2009-09-15)
[2692] Flexible search and replace in Python - (2010-03-25)
[2721] Regular Expressions in Python - (2010-04-14)
[2765] Running operating system commands from your Python program - (2010-05-14)
[2780] Formatted Printing in Python - (2010-05-25)
[2814] Python - splitting and joining strings - (2010-06-16)
[3090] Matching to a string - what if it matches in many possible ways? - (2010-12-17)
[3218] Matching a license plate or product code - Regular Expressions - (2011-03-28)
[3349] Formatting output in Python through str.format - (2011-07-07)
[3468] Python string formatting - the move from % to str.format - (2011-10-08)
[3469] Teaching dilemma - old tricks and techniques, or recent enhancements? - (2011-10-08)
[3796] Backquote, backtic, str and repr in Python - conversion object to string - (2012-07-05)
[3886] Formatting output - why we need to, and first Python example - (2012-10-09)
[4027] Collections in Python - list tuple dict and string. - (2013-03-04)
[4152] Why are bus fares so high? - (2013-08-18)
[4213] Formatting options in Python - (2013-11-16)
[4307] Identifying and clearing denial of service attacks on your Apache server - (2014-09-27)
[4360] Python - comparison of old and new string formatters - (2014-12-22)
[4593] Command line parameter handling in Python via the argparse module - (2015-12-08)
[4595] Python formatting update - including named completions - (2015-12-10)
[4659] Prining a pound sign from Python AND running from the command line at the same time - (2016-03-03)
Some other Articles
PHP Image upload scriptFile and URL reading in PHPBank Holiday country breaks in Melksham, WiltshireTraining in LuaPython - two different splitsFalse imprisonment - a contrast from the newsExpress serviceWeekend VisitorsSpring PicturesA week is a long time in the life of a conference centre