+1 on the idea of having `partition` and `rpartition` take multiple separators. Keep it nice and simple: provided with multiple separators, `partition` will split the string on the first separator found in the source string. In other words, `source.partition(a, b, c, d)` will split on a /or/ b /or/ c /or/ d, whichever comes first on the left. Here is a proof of concept to give the basic idea: ``` def partition(source, *seps): if len(seps) == 0: raise TypeError('need at least one separator') indices = [(i, sep) for sep in seps if (i:=source.find(sep)) != -1] if indices: pos, sep = min(indices, key=lambda t: t[0]) return (source[:pos], sep, source[pos + len(sep):]) else: return (source, '', '') ``` That is not the most efficient implementation, but it shows the basic concept. Example: >>> partition('abc-def+ghi;klm', ';', '-', '+') ('abc', '-', 'def+ghi;klm') >>> partition('def+ghi;klm', ';', '-', '+') ('def', '+', 'ghi;klm') However there are some complications that need resolving. What if the separators overlap? E.g. we might have '-' and '--' as two separators. We might want to choose the shortest separator, or the longest. That choice should be a keyword-only argument. -- Steve