Python String split()

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the Python String split() method to split a string into a list of substrings.

Introduction to the Python string split() method

The split() method splits a string and returns a list of substrings. The following shows the syntax of the split() method:

str.split(sep=None, maxsplit=-1)Code language: Python (python)

The split() method accepts two optional parameters:

1) sep parameter

The sep parameter is the delimiter that specifies where in the str each split should occurs.

If you don’t pass the sep argument or use None, the split() method will treat consecutive whitespace as a single delimiter and return a list of non-empty substrings.

2) maxsplit parameter

The maxsplit parameter specifies the maximum number of splits that the method will carry.

If you pass the maxsplit, the result list will have at most maxsplit + 1 elements.

If you omit the maxsplit or pass -1, then there’s no limit on the number of splits. In other words, the result list will contain all possible splits.

Python String split() example

Let’s take some examples of using the split() method.

1) Using the Python String split() method to split a string into words

The following example illustrates how to sue the split() method to split a string into multiple words:

s = 'Python String split'
substrings = s.`split()`
print(substrings)Code language: Python (python)

Output:

['Python', 'String', 'split'] Code language: Python (python)

In this example, we didn’t pass any argument to the split() method. Therefore, the split() method splits the strings into words with all possible splits.

2) Using the Python String split() method to split a string using a separator

The following example shows how to use the split() method to split a string using the comma (,) separator:

s = 'John,Doe,[email protected],(408)-999-1111'
contact = s.split(',')
print(contact)Code language: Python (python)

Output:

['John', 'Doe', '[email protected]', '(408)-999-1111']Code language: Python (python)

3) Using the Python String split() method to split a string using the sep and maxsplit parameters

The following example illustrates how to use the split() method with the maxsplit parameter:

s = 'apple,orange,banana'
results = s.split(',', 1)
print(results)Code language: Python (python)

Output:

['apple', 'orange,banana']Code language: Python (python)

Since the maxsplit is one, the number of elements in the results list is two.

If you pass -1 or skip passing the maxsplit argument, the split() will return all possible splits:

s = 'apple,orange,banana'
results = s.split(',', -1)
print(results)Code language: Python (python)

Output:

['apple', 'orange', 'banana']Code language: Python (python)

Summary

• Use the Python String split() method to split a string into a list of substrings.
• Use the sep argument to specify where the split should occur.
• Use the maxsplit argument to limit the number of splits.