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Python split Examples

Syntax

str.split(sep=None, maxsplit=-1)

Note how the delimiter is optional. Passing None causes shell-like whitespace splitting.

By specifying the maxsplit parameter you can limit the number of results

Examples

>>> 'Fri Nov  2 21:40:09 CET 2018'.split()
['Fri', 'Nov', '2', '21:40:09', 'CET', '2018']

>>> 'Fri Nov  2 21:40:09 CET 2018'.split(' ')
['Fri', 'Nov', '', '2', '21:40:09', 'CET', '2018']     <--- Note the extra empty string!

>>> 'a,b,c'.split(',', 1)
['a', 'b,c']

Be careful on the border cases for empty strings!

>>> ''.split()
[]

>>> ''.split(' ')
['']
  • To split on newlines use str.splitlines()
  • When you split only a part of the string you can use str.rsplit() to start splitting from the right
  • When you want to split on regex patterns use re.search()