If I have a string with spaces, and wanted to split it into a list/array, I would use this:
split_string = "a b c".split()
print(split_string)
Output:
['a', 'b', 'c']
I can go ahead and specify a delimiter (which character the string must split on):
split_string = "string with spaces".split(" ")
print(split_string)
I get the same result:
['a', 'b', 'c']
But what if my string wasn't so forgiving?
split_string = "a b c".split(" ")
print(split_string)
Output:
['a', 'b', '', 'c']
Not exactly what we want. Leaving the delimiter out gives us the exact same list as when we had this with a forgiving string.
Anyways, the point is that for a lot of cases, probably a majority, when one wants to perform a string split, it's because they want to delimit it with spaces. So, Python covers for that common use-case. That's a bit of magic (justification) one might take for granted, because it's not available in PHP and Java. I'm here only going to show Java examples. PHP examples aren't that much different though.
Here goes:
import java.util.Arrays;
String[] splitString = "a b c".split(" ");
System.out.println(Arrays.asList(splitString));
Output:
[a, b, , c]
That's not what we want, so in order to cover for my unforgiving string, I get to use regular expressions (regexp)?
import java.util.Arrays;
String[] splitString = "string with spaces".split(" +");
System.out.println(Arrays.asList(splitString));
Output:
[a, b, c]
The + in the split() method indicates that the match can either be
one or more consecutive spaces.
That's not what we want, so in order to cover for my unforgiving string, I get to use regular expressions (regexp)?
String[] splitString = "string with spaces".split(" +");
System.out.println(Arrays.asList(splitString));
Output:
[a, b, c]
But what if the string was even less forgiving. In this case, having tabs as well? We need some more regexp help:
import java.util.Arrays;
String[] splitString = "a bnc".split("s+");
System.out.println(Arrays.asList(splitString));
Output:
[a, b, c]
The s matches any white space.
With Python, I expected the default way to work but it didn't, but came back disappointed:
split_string = "a bnc".split(" ")
print(split_string)
Output:
['at', 'bnc']
Perhaps it's a philosophical difference, but it's harder to do this with Python. This is the only thing so that I found easier to achieve in Java than in Python:
import re
split_string = re.split("s+", "a bnc")
print(split_string)
...and we finally get what we want:
['a', 'b', 'c']