How to use Split in Python

The split() method in Python returns a list of the words in the string/line , separated by the delimiter string. This method will return one or more new strings. All substrings are returned in the list datatype. Syntax

string.split(separator, max)

Parameter	Description
separator	The 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 there is no limit.
return	The split() breaks the string at the separator and returns a list of strings.

If no separator is defined when you call upon the function, whitespace will be used by default. In simpler terms, the separator is a defined character that will be placed between each variable. The behavior of split on an empty string depends on the value of sep. If sep is not specified, or specified as None, the result will be an empty list. If sep is specified as any string, the result will be a list containing one element which is an empty string .

Splitting String by space

The split() method in Python without an argument splits on whitespace. example

str = "This is a test" print(str.split())

output

['This', 'is', 'a', 'test']

Splitting on first occurrence

In the following example, it will Split by first 2 whitespace only.

example

str = "This is a test" print(str.split(" ",2))

output

['This', 'is', 'a test']

Splitting lines from a text file in Python

The following Python program reading a text file and splitting it into single words in python example

with open("my_file.txt", "r") as my_file: for line in my_file: str = line.split() print(str)

Splitting String by newline(\n)

str = "This \nis \na \ntest" print(str) print("\nAfter Split\n") print(str.split())

output

This is a test After Split ['This', 'is', 'a', 'test']

Splitting String by tab(\t)

str = "This \tis \ta \ttest" print(str) print("\nAfter Split\n") print(str.split())

output

This is a test After Split ['This', 'is', 'a', 'test']

Splitting String by comma(,)

str = "This,is,a,test" print(str.split(","))

output

['This', 'is', 'a', 'test']

Split string with multiple delimiters

In this case Python uses Regular Expression. example

import re str = "This,isa;test" print(re.split(",;",str))

output

['This', 'is', 'a', 'test']

Split a string into a list

The following Python program split a string to a List. example

str = "This is a test" lst = str.split() for st in lst: print(st)

output

This is a test

maxsplit parameter

Split the string into a list with max 2 items

numbers = "one two three four five six" result = numbers.split(" ",2) print (result)

output

['one', 'two', 'three four five six']

In the above program maxsplit is 2, the first two string are split and rest of them are in a same string.

Split a string into array of characters

characters = "abcdef" result = list(characters) print (result)

output

['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f']

Python split() using substring

Extact a string after a specific substring.

In the above example, you can see the split() function return next part of a string using a specific substring.
extract previous part string of a specific substring

extract previous part string of a specific substring

Here, you can see the split() function return the previous part of the string using a specific substring.

Looking for a Python job ?

Chances are you will need to prove that you know how to work with Python. These Python Interview Questions have been designed especially to get you acquainted with the nature of questions you may encounter during your interview for the subject of Python Programming . Here are the top objective type sample Python Interview questions and their answers are given just below to them. These sample questions are framed by our experts team who trains for Python training to give you an idea of type of questions which may be asked in interview. Go to... Python Interview Questions

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