Using split function without split() string method. Almost

Question

I'm trying to replicate the .split() string method. It works well but it doesn't include the last word.

def stringSplitter(string):
    words = []
    current_word = ""
    for x in range(len(string)): #problem is here
        if string[x] == " ":
            words.append(current_word)
            current_word = ""
        else:
            current_word += string[x]
    return words

Test 1: When sentence=I like to ride my bicycle, my code incorrectly outputs:

['I', 'like', 'to', 'ride', 'my']

The result I want is:

['I', 'like', 'to', 'ride', 'my', 'bicycle']

If you are using indexing in your python for loop, you're usually doing something wrong. — syntaxError
– syntaxError, Commented Jun 10, 2017 at 6:01

DYZ · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-10 05:47:20Z

4

Add words.append(current_word) just before returning from the function. That's your "lost" word. Also, there is no need to use either range or any indexing. for x in string: iterates directly over the characters.

answered Jun 10, 2017 at 5:47

DYZ

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1 Comment

lloydyu24 Over a year ago

Thank you! Finally, so this is what I'm missing.

Chris · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-10 06:11:46Z

Note this could be implemented more succinctly using a generator function - if you didn't mind deviating from the "real" str.split() function implementation a little bit:

>>> def split(string, delimiter=' '):
    current_word = ''
    for char in string:
        if char == delimiter:
            yield current_word
            current_word = ''
        else:
            current_word += char
    yield current_word


>>> list(split('I like to ride my bicycle'))
['I', 'like', 'to', 'ride', 'my', 'bicycle']
>>>

You could even modify it to allow returning the delimiter as well:

>>> def split(string, delimiter=' ', save_delimiter=False):
    current_word = ''
    for char in string:
        if char == delimiter:
            yield current_word
            if save_delimiter:
                yield char
            current_word = ''
        else:
            current_word += char
    yield current_word


>>> list(split('I like to ride my bicycle', save_delimiter=True))
['I', ' ', 'like', ' ', 'to', ' ', 'ride', ' ', 'my', ' ', 'bicycle']
>>>

lloydyu24 · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-10 05:58:37Z

1

I got it with the help of the first answer by @DYZ. Thank you! Apparently, I was skipping the last word because I need to add (below) before the return.

words.append(current_word)

My Code:

def stringSplitter(string):
    words = []
    current_word = ""
    for char in string:
        if char == " ":
            words.append(current_word)
            current_word = ""
        else:
            current_word += char
    words.append(current_word)        
    return words

answered Jun 10, 2017 at 5:58

lloydyu24

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