How to split at spaces and commas in Python?

Question

I've been looking around here, but I didn't find anything that was close to my problem. I'm using Python3. I want to split a string at every whitespace and at commas. Here is what I got now, but I am getting some weird output: (Don't worry, the sentence is translated from German)

    import re
    sentence = "We eat, Granny" 
    split = re.split(r'(\s|\,)', sentence.strip())
    print (split)

    >>>['We', ' ', 'eat', ',', '', ' ', 'Granny']

What I actually want to have is:

    >>>['We', ' ', 'eat', ',', ' ', 'Granny']

The comma looks very important here :), but you do not need to escape it — Wiktor Stribiżew
– Wiktor Stribiżew, Commented Nov 18, 2016 at 11:21
See Why are empty strings returned in split() results? for some more on those empty strings. — Jongware
– Jongware, Commented Nov 18, 2016 at 11:22
indeed the comma is important (in german) otherwise you eat granny :), Thanks Rad Lexus,i will have look — Vincent van Munky
– Vincent van Munky, Commented Nov 18, 2016 at 11:25

Sebastian Proske · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-18 11:29:38Z

4

I'd go for findall instead of split and just match all the desired contents, like

import re
sentence = "We eat, Granny" 
print(re.findall(r'\s|,|[^,\s]+', sentence))

answered Nov 18, 2016 at 11:29

Sebastian Proske

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2 Comments

Vincent van Munky Over a year ago

yes that perfectly works! eventhough i dont understand whats the difference in my attempt! Thanks!

Sebastian Proske Over a year ago

The main difference is the use of findall instead of split.

zipa · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-18 11:43:08Z

0

This should work for you:

 import re
 sentence = "We eat, Granny" 
 split = list(filter(None, re.split(r'(\s|\,)', sentence.strip())))
 print (split)

edited Nov 18, 2016 at 11:43

answered Nov 18, 2016 at 11:27

zipa

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1 Comment

Vincent van Munky Over a year ago

it somehow yields: <filter object at 0x000000000514A208>

Vaulstein · Accepted Answer · 2023-01-27 06:48:30Z

0

Alternate way:

import re
sentence = "We eat, Granny"
split = [a for a in re.split(r'(\s|\,)', sentence.strip()) if a]

Output:

['We', ' ', 'eat', ',', ' ', 'Granny']

Works with both python 2.7 and 3

edited Jan 27, 2023 at 6:48

answered Nov 18, 2016 at 11:22

Vaulstein

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2 Comments

Vincent van Munky Over a year ago

your proposal yields: ['We', 'eat', '', 'Granny']

Vaulstein Over a year ago

It returns the same output as what you asked for, for me

user5417363 · Accepted Answer · 2024-10-12 10:26:20Z

0

how about

import re
sentence = "We eat, Granny"
re.split(r'[\s,]+', sentence)

answered Oct 12, 2024 at 10:26

user5417363

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