split() : break the string using delimiter in Python

split() returns a list after breaking a string using delimiter and max value

my_str.split(delimiter,max_value)

delimiter : (default is space), required, to be used to break the string
max_value : optional , the number of elements in output plus one. Default value is -1 so it includes all occurrence.

my_list="'Alex','Ronald','John'"
my_list=my_list.split(',')
print(my_list)

my_list="'Alex','Ronald','John'"
my_list=my_list.split(',',1)
print(my_list)

output

["'Alex'", "'Ronald'", "'John'"]
["'Alex'", "'Ronald','John'"]

By using rsplit() in place of split(), the output will change like this. ( difference between rsplit() and split() )

["'Alex'", "'Ronald'", "'John'"]
["'Alex','Ronald'", "'John'"]

Example 1: Basic split() Usage

text = "apple orange banana"
fruits = text.split()
print(fruits)

Output:

['apple', 'orange', 'banana']

Example 2: Custom Delimiter

Using a comma as a delimiter to split CSV-like data.

data = "name,age,location"
values = data.split(',')
print(values)

Output:

['name', 'age', 'location']

Example 3: Using maxsplit

Control the number of splits using maxsplit.

text = "apple-orange-banana-pear"
result = text.split('-', 2)
print(result)

Output:

['apple', 'orange', 'banana-pear']

Example 4: Split with rsplit() for Right Splits

rsplit() splits from the right side of the string.

text = "apple-orange-banana-pear"
result = text.rsplit('-', 2)
print(result)

Output:

['apple-orange', 'banana', 'pear']

Example 5: Splitting Each Word from User Input

Useful for processing phrases into words.

phrase = input("Enter a phrase: ")
words = phrase.split()
print("Words:", words)

Use Cases for split()

Data Parsing: Split data read from files or user input.
Data Processing: Transform strings to lists for iteration or filtering.
Working with CSV Data: Manually parse CSV rows if a CSV parser isn't used.

All String methods

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split(): Divide Strings into Substrings by Delimiter

Example 1: Basic split() Usage

Example 2: Custom Delimiter

Example 3: Using maxsplit

Example 4: Split with rsplit() for Right Splits

Example 5: Splitting Each Word from User Input

Use Cases for split()

Subhendu Mohapatra