Split() not working?

Question

So I am trying to split a string s:

s = "l=2&w=3&h=2"

However whenever I try to use the split() function on s and store the values in list L, this comes up:

L = s.split()
L --> ['l=2&w=3&h=2']

Am I doing something wrong? How do I split this string so I get:

L = ['l','=','2','&','w','=','3','&','h','=','2']

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered May 29 '14 at 00:20

5

It's actually easier than you might think.

L = list(s)

In Python, strings are iterable, just like lists. If you just need to iterate over the string, you don't even need to store it in a list.

answered May 29 '14 at 00:20

Cody Piersall

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score 5 · Answer 2 · answered May 29 '14 at 00:21

5

split() with no arguments splits on whitespace, which your string contains none of. To split on every character, just convert your string directly to a list:

L = list(s)

answered May 29 '14 at 00:21

jwodder

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score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:27

I don't know the whole story. I know .list() will work but I also must say this. If you import the right library, I think, you have another method:

    import re
    s = "l=2&w=3&h=2"
    print re.findall(r"[\w']+", s)
    # Prints ['1', '=', '2', '&', 'w', '=', '3', '&', 'h', '=', '2']

I got the answer from the following source. It's actually another stack exchange question:

Split Strings with Multiple Delimiters?

Not perfect, I know, but I hope it helps.

Split() not working?

3 Answers3