What is split function in python

Python String split() Method

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

txt = «welcome to the jungle»

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

Parameter Values

Parameter	Description
separator	Optional. Specifies the separator to use when splitting the string. By default any whitespace is a separator
maxsplit	Optional. Specifies how many splits to do. Default value is -1, which is «all occurrences»

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»

Example

Use a hash character as a separator:

Example

Split the string into a list with max 2 items:

# setting the maxsplit parameter to 1, will return a list with 2 elements!
x = txt.split(«#», 1)

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Python .split() – Splitting a String in Python

Dionysia Lemonaki

In this article, you will learn how to split a string in Python.

Firstly, I’ll introduce you to the syntax of the .split() method. After that, you will see how to use the .split() method with and without arguments, using code examples along the way.

Here is what we will cover:

What Is The .split() Method in Python? .split() Method Syntax Breakdown

You use the .split() method for splitting a string into a list.

The general syntax for the .split() method looks something like the following:

string.split(separator, maxsplit) 

• string is the string you want to split. This is the string on which you call the .split() method.
• The .split() method accepts two arguments.
• The first optional argument is separator , which specifies what kind of separator to use for splitting the string. If this argument is not provided, the default value is any whitespace, meaning the string will split whenever .split() encounters any whitespace.
• The second optional argument is maxsplit , which specifies the maximum number of splits the .split() method should perform. If this argument is not provided, the default value is -1 , meaning there is no limit on the number of splits, and .split() should split the string on all the occurrences it encounters separator .

The .split() method returns a new list of substrings, and the original string is not modified in any way.

How Does The .split() Method Work Without Any Arguments?

Here is how you would split a string into a list using the .split() method without any arguments:

coding_journey = "I am learning to code for free with freeCodecamp!" # split string into a list and save result into a new variable coding_journey_split = coding_journey.split() print(coding_journey) print(coding_journey_split) # check the data type of coding_journey_split by using the type() function print(type(coding_journey_split)) # output # I am learning to code for free with freeCodecamp! # ['I', 'am', 'learning', 'to', 'code', 'for', 'free', 'with', 'freeCodecamp!'] #

The output shows that each word that makes up the string is now a list item, and the original string is preserved.

When you don’t pass either of the two arguments that the .split() method accepts, then by default, it will split the string every time it encounters whitespace until the string comes to an end.

What happens when you don’t pass any arguments to the .split() method, and it encounters consecutive whitespaces instead of just one?

coding_journey = "I love coding" coding_journey_split = coding_journey.split() print(coding_journey_split) # output # ['I', 'love', 'coding'] 

In the example above, I added consecutive whitespaces between the word love and the word coding . When this is the case, the .split() method treats any consecutive spaces as if they are one single whitespace.

How Does The .split() Method Work With The separator Argument?

As you saw earlier, when there is no separator argument, the default value for it is whitespace. That said, you can set a different separator .

The separator will break and divide the string whenever it encounters the character you specify and will return a list of substrings.

For example, you could make it so that a string splits whenever the .split() method encounters a dot, . :

fave_website = "www.freecodecamp.org" fave_website_split = fave_website.split(".") print(fave_website_split) # output # ['www', 'freecodecamp', 'org'] 

In the example above, the string splits whenever .split() encounters a .

Keep in mind that I didn’t specify a dot followed by a space. That wouldn’t work since the string doesn’t contain a dot followed by a space:

fave_website = "www.freecodecamp.org" fave_website_split = fave_website.split(". ") print(fave_website_split) # output # ['www.freecodecamp.org'] 

Now, let’s revisit the last example from the previous section.

When there was no separator argument, consecutive whitespaces were treated as if they were single whitespace.

However, when you specify a single space as the separator , then the string splits every time it encounters a single space character:

coding_journey = "I love coding" coding_journey_split = coding_journey.split(" ") print(coding_journey_split) # output # ['I', 'love', '', '', 'coding'] 

In the example above, each time .split() encountered a space character, it split the word and added the empty space as a list item.

How Does The .split() Method Work With The maxsplit Argument?

When there is no maxsplit argument, there is no specified limit for when the splitting should stop.

In the first example of the previous section, .split() split the string each and every time it encountered the separator until it reached the end of the string.

However, you can specify when you want the split to end.

For example, you could specify that the split ends after it encounters one dot:

fave_website = "www.freecodecamp.org" fave_website_split = fave_website.split(".", 1) print(fave_website_split) # output # ['www', 'freecodecamp.org'] 

In the example above, I set the maxsplit to 1 , and a list was created with two list items.

I specified that the list should split when it encounters one dot. Once it encountered one dot, the operation would end, and the rest of the string would be a list item on its own.

Conclusion

And there you have it! You now know how to split a string in Python using the .split() method.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful.

To learn more about the Python programming language, check out freeCodeCamp’s Python certification.

You’ll start from the basics and learn in an interactive and beginner-friendly way. You’ll also build five projects at the end to put into practice and help reinforce what you’ve learned.

Thank you for reading, and happy coding!

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Python String split()

The split() function in Python is used to split a given string into a list of small substrings according to a separator and finally it returns that list where elements are nothing but the split parts of the string.

Syntax of Split () Function in Python

The syntax of split() is as follows:

The myString is the string on which the split function called.

Parameters of Split () Function in Python

split() function in Python takes two parameters:

• separator : The separator is the character by which the main string is to be split into smaller substrings. If it is not provided the whitespace is considered as separator by default.
• maxCount : It tells the number of times the string should be split, It is a number value and if not provided, by default it is -1 that means there is no limit.

Return Value of Split () Function in Python

Return Type: list

This Function returns a python list containing the split strings.

Example of split() in Python

Here we are going to discuss a simple example based on the split function.

Explanation:

The string S1 is split by whitespaces as we have not provided any separator, The string S2 is split by commas. Subsequently list for both is being returned.

What is split() function in Python?

Take a case where you have given a list of names separated by commas and you have to separate all of them and display them,

In that case, you can use the split() function that will easily separate all the names by commas, and then you can easily display them.

As the name suggests, the split() function in python is used to split a particular string into smaller strings by breaking the main string using the given specifier. The specifier is the character separator to use while splitting the string, for example — «@», » «, ‘$’ , etc.

Why use split() function in Python?

Suppose there is a condition where you have given a string «This@is@scaler» and you have to get all the words of this string in a list. So, in that case we have to split the whole string by «@» character and that’s where the split() function comes in handy. So, the function will create a list [‘This’, ‘is’, ‘scaler’] .

It easily splits the above string by «@» and gives the list containing all the smaller strings.

Similarly it easily splits the above string by whitespaces and gives the list containing all the smaller strings, so the list will be [‘Hello’, ‘World’] .

More Examples of Split () Function in Python

Example 1: Using maxCount Parameter

We can set the Maximum Number of parts in which string should be split.

Explanation:

The string S1 will be split at whitespaces three times as we have provided max parameter as 3 . The string S2 will be split at ‘@’ two times as we have provided max parameter as 2

Example 2: Combining the Returned Array.

We can also do other useful operations on returned list i.e. combining it into a single string.

Explanation:

String S1 is split by ‘#’ and then is stored in a list and further join operations is performed on that list subsequently the list combines to the new string.

Conclusion

• The split() function in python is used to split a particular string into smaller strings by breaking the main string using the given specifier.
• It returns a list containing the split strings.
• It works for a string and takes 2 parameters, specifier and maximum count for split.
• Finally the list returned can be iterated over and all the split strings can be easily accessed in that list.

See Also:

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