Python String split() method with Examples

In Python, the split() method is a built-in function used to divide a string into a list of substrings based on a specified delimiter. By default, the delimiter is any whitespace, and it splits the string wherever it encounters spaces, tabs, or newlines.

Syntax:

string.split(separator, maxsplit)

• separator (optional): The delimiter you want to use to split the string. By default, it is any whitespace (spaces, tabs, newlines).
• maxsplit (optional): The number of splits to perform. The default value is -1, which means “all occurrences”. If you specify a number, it will split only that many times.

Examples:

1. Basic Example with Default Separator (Whitespace)

By default, split() divides the string wherever there are spaces.

text = "Hello world! Welcome to Python."
result = text.split()

print(result)

Output:

['Hello', 'world!', 'Welcome', 'to', 'Python.']

Here, the string is split at each whitespace.

2. Splitting with a Specific Separator

You can provide a specific separator to split the string. For example, splitting a sentence by commas:

text = "apple,banana,cherry,dates"
result = text.split(',')

print(result)

Output:

['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'dates']

In this case, the string is split wherever there is a comma (,).

3. Using maxsplit to Limit the Number of Splits

You can also limit the number of splits performed by specifying the maxsplit argument. For example, splitting the string into only two parts:

text = "apple,banana,cherry,dates"
result = text.split(',', 2)

print(result)

Output:

['apple', 'banana', 'cherry,dates']

Here, the string is split into a maximum of 2 parts: ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry,dates'].

4. Splitting with Multiple Whitespace Characters

The split() method can also handle multiple spaces, treating them as a single separator:

text = "This  is   a   sentence."
result = text.split()

print(result)

Output:

['This', 'is', 'a', 'sentence.']

Notice that multiple spaces between words are automatically ignored, and the string is split correctly.

5. Splitting an Empty String

If the string is empty, split() returns an empty list:

text = ""
result = text.split()

print(result)

Output:

[]

6. Splitting by Newlines

You can also use split() to divide a string by newline characters (\n):

text = "Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3"
result = text.split('\n')

print(result)

Output:

['Line 1', 'Line 2', 'Line 3']

7. Splitting Strings with Different Separators

If you have a string with different kinds of separators (e.g., commas and spaces), you can use regular expressions (via the re.split() function) to split the string. This is not directly done with the split() method, but it’s a useful approach for more complex scenarios.

import re

text = "apple, banana; orange|grape"
result = re.split('[,;|]', text)

print(result)

Output:

['apple', ' banana', ' orange', 'grape']

In this case, we used regular expressions to split the string by commas, semicolons, or vertical bars (|).

Key Takeaways:

• split() is used to divide a string into substrings based on a delimiter.
• If no delimiter is provided, it splits by any whitespace.
• You can limit the number of splits using the maxsplit parameter.
• The method handles multiple consecutive spaces as a single separator.

The split() method is one of the most commonly used string manipulation methods in Python and is very versatile for splitting strings in various ways.