How do you split a string in Python with multiple delimiters?

Question

For example, I could want to split "Hello>>>World!!!!2]]splitting" into ["Hello", "World","2","splitting"]. It doesn't need to be ^that^, but I want to split a string with multiple (say 5) delimiters. Thanks.

EDIT: I also want to keep the delimiter, making it ["Hello", ">>>", "World", "!!!!", "2", "]]", "splitting"]

Here's what I've tried:

>>> string = "Hello>>>World!!!!2]]splitting"
>>> import re
>>> re.split("(\W)>>>|!!!!|]]", string)
['Hello>>>World', None, '2', None, 'splitting']

(I'm new at Regex)

Can you show your code please with any error messages you are receiving? Also, it would help if you can clearly indicate what parts of your code you're having difficulty with. — idjaw
– idjaw, Commented Sep 30, 2015 at 0:49

Marius · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-30 01:05:45Z

8

To do this using re.split you can do:

re.split(r'(>+|!+|]+)', string)

Explaining this briefly:

You split on one or more occurrences of the different delimiters (>, !, ]).
In order to include the delimiters in the result, you put the pattern in a capturing group by putting parens around it.

answered Sep 30, 2015 at 1:05

Marius

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3 Comments

Henry Over a year ago

Thanks for the explanation

Henry Over a year ago

So doesn't that mean that re.split(r'(\+)', string) would split the spaces and keep the spaces?

Marius Over a year ago

@Henry Yep, try it, re.split(r'( )', 'the quick brown fox')

Leb · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-30 00:57:53Z

3

import re

a = 'Hello>>>World!!!!2]]splitting'

print(re.findall('\W+|\w+',a))

['Hello', '>>>', 'World', '!!!!', '2', ']]', 'splitting']

What you're doing is finding all word characters or non word characters.

answered Sep 30, 2015 at 0:57

Leb

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2 Comments

Henry Over a year ago

What if it was something like splitting spaces and newlines and keeping both too?

Leb Over a year ago

Just change the regex pattern. You got an example for that? newlines would be \n and \ + for spaces

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