[New-bugs-announce] [issue13346] re.split() should behave like string.split() for maxsplit=0 and maxsplit=-1

[Alan Grow]

New submission from Alan Grow <alangrow+pythonbugs at gmail.com>:

If you split a string in a maximum of zero places, you should get the original string back. "".split(s,0) behaves this way. But re.split(r,s,0) performs an unlimited number of splits in this case.

To get an unlimited number of splits, "".split(s,-1) is a sensible choice. But in this case re.split(r,s,-1) performs zero splits.

Where's the sense in this?

>>> import string, re
>>> string.split("foo bar baz"," ",0)
['foo bar baz']
>>> re.split("\s+","foo bar baz",0)
['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
>>> string.split("foo bar baz"," ",-1)
['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
>>> re.split("\s+","foo bar baz",-1)
['foo bar baz']

----------
components: Library (Lib)
messages: 147066
nosy: acg
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: re.split() should behave like string.split() for maxsplit=0 and maxsplit=-1
type: behavior
versions: Python 2.6

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue13346>
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