How do you split a string delimited in python?

❮ String Methods

Example

Split a string into a list where each word is a list item:

txt = "welcome to the jungle"

x = txt.split[]

print[x]

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Definition and Usage

The split[] method splits a string into a list.

You can specify the separator, default separator is any whitespace.

Note: When maxsplit is specified, the list will contain the specified number of elements plus one.

Syntax

string.split[separator, maxsplit]

Parameter Values

More Examples

Example

Split the string, using comma, followed by a space, as a separator:

txt = "hello, my name is Peter, I am 26 years old"

x = txt.split[", "]

print[x]

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Example

Use a hash character as a separator:

txt = "apple#banana#cherry#orange"

x = txt.split["#"]

print[x]

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Example

Split the string into a list with max 2 items:

txt = "apple#banana#cherry#orange"

# setting the maxsplit parameter to 1, will return a list with 2 elements!
x = txt.split["#", 1]

print[x]

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❮ String Methods

Python String split[] method in Python split a string into a list of strings after breaking the given string by the specified separator.

Python String split[] Method Syntax

Syntax : str.split[separator, maxsplit]

Parameters :

• separator : This is a delimiter. The string splits at this specified separator. If is not provided then any white space is a separator.
• maxsplit : It is a number, which tells us to split the string into maximum of provided number of times. If it is not provided then the default is -1 that means there is no limit.

Returns : Returns a list of strings after breaking the given string by the specified separator.

Python String split[] Method Example

Python3

string = "one,two,three"

words = string.split[',']

print[words]

Output:

['one', 'two', 'three']

Example 1: Example to demonstrate how split[] function works

Here we are using the Python String split[] function to split different Strings into a list, separated by different characters in each case.

Python3

text = 'geeks for geeks'

print[text.split[]]

word = 'geeks, for, geeks'

print[word.split[',']]

word = 'geeks:for:geeks'

print[word.split[':']]

word = 'CatBatSatFatOr'

print[word.split['t']]

Output :

['geeks', 'for', 'geeks']
['geeks', ' for', ' geeks']
['geeks', 'for', 'geeks']
['Ca', 'Ba', 'Sa', 'Fa', 'Or']

Example 2: Example to demonstrate how split[] function works when maxsplit is specified

The maxsplit parameter is used to control how many splits to return after the string is parsed. Even if there are multiple splits possible, it’ll only do maximum that number of splits as defined by maxsplit parameter.

Python3

word = 'geeks, for, geeks, pawan'

print[word.split[', ', 0]]

print[word.split[', ', 4]]

print[word.split[', ', 1]]

Output :

['geeks, for, geeks, pawan']
['geeks', 'for', 'geeks', 'pawan']
['geeks', 'for, geeks, pawan']

How to split this string where __ is the delimiter

MATCHES__STRING

To get an output of ['MATCHES', 'STRING']?

shgnInc

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asked Aug 13, 2010 at 8:46

2

You can use the str.split method: string.split['__']

>>> "MATCHES__STRING".split["__"]
['MATCHES', 'STRING']

MendelG

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answered Aug 13, 2010 at 8:48

adamkadamk

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4

You may be interested in the csv module, which is designed for comma-separated files but can be easily modified to use a custom delimiter.

import csv
csv.register_dialect[ "myDialect", delimiter = "__",  ]
lines = [ "MATCHES__STRING" ]

for row in csv.reader[ lines ]:
    ...

Aran-Fey

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answered Aug 13, 2010 at 8:56

KatrielKatriel

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When you have two or more elements in the string [in the example below there are three], then you can use a comma to separate these items:

date, time, event_name = ev.get_text[separator='@'].split["@"]

After this line of code, the three variables will have values from three parts of the variable ev.

So, if the variable ev contains this string and we apply separator @:

Sa., 23. März@19:00@Klavier + Orchester: SPEZIAL

Then, after the split operation the variable

• date will have value Sa., 23. März
• time will have value 19:00
• event_name will have value Klavier + Orchester: SPEZIAL

Gino Mempin

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answered Mar 4, 2019 at 16:44

1

For Python 3.8, you actually don't need the get_text method, you can just go with ev.split["@"], as a matter of fact the get_text method is throwing an att. error. So if you have a string variable, for example:

filename = 'file/foo/bar/fox'

You can just split that into different variables with comas as suggested in the above comment but with a correction:

W, X, Y, Z = filename.split['_'] 
W = 'file' 
X = 'foo'
Y = 'bar'
Z = 'fox'

answered Sep 8, 2021 at 14:22

GnaiGnai

155 bronze badges

Besides split and rsplit, there is partition/rpartition. It separates string once, but the way question was asked, it may apply as well.

Example:

>>> "MATCHES__STRING".partition["__"]
['MATCHES', '__', 'STRING']

>>> "MATCHES__STRING".partition["__"][::2]
['MATCHES', 'STRING']

And a bit faster then split["_",1]:

$ python -m timeit "'validate_field_name'.split['_', 1][-1]"
2000000 loops, best of 5: 136 nsec per loop

$ python -m timeit "'validate_field_name'.partition['_'][-1]"
2000000 loops, best of 5: 108 nsec per loop

Timeit lines are based on this answer

answered Apr 11 at 12:44

topin89topin89

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