Split string in Python while keeping the line break inside the generated list

Question

As simple as it sounds, can't think of a straightforward way of doing the below in Python.

my_string = "This is a test.\nAlso\tthis" list_i_want = ["This", "is", "a", "test.", "\n", "Also", "this"]

I need the same behaviour as with string.split(), i.e. remove any type and number of whitespaces, but excluding the line breaks \n in which case I need it as a standalone list item.

How could I do this?

First split it at newline, and insert a newline between each resulting string. Then split each non-newline string at whitespace. — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Mar 25, 2022 at 18:47

Stephan · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-25 20:31:22Z

Split String using Regex findall()

import re my_string = "This is a test.\nAlso\tthis" my_list = re.findall(r"\S+|\n", my_string) print(my_list)

How it Works:

"\S+": "\S" = non whitespace characters. "+" is a greed quantifier so it find any groups of non-whitespace characters aka words
"|": OR logic
"\n": Find "\n" so it's returned as well in your list

Output:

['This', 'is', 'a', 'test.', '\n', 'Also', 'this']

Abhyuday Vaish · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-25 19:59:07Z

Here's a code that works but is definitely not efficient/pythonic:

my_string = "This is a test.\nAlso\tthis" l = my_string.splitlines() #Splitting lines list_i_want = [] for i in l: list_i_want.extend((i.split())) # Extending elements in list by splitting lines list_i_want.extend('\n') # adding newline character list_i_want.pop() # Removing last newline character print(list_i_want)

Output:

['This', 'is', 'a', 'test.', '\n', 'Also', 'this']

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Split string in Python while keeping the line break inside the generated list

2 Answers 2

Split String using Regex findall()

Output:

Comments

Comments

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Split String using Regex findall()

Output:

Comments

Comments

Related