[Python-Dev] string.split

[Andreas Beyer]

The documentation of string.split() says:
"... The returned list will then have one more item than the number of 
non-overlapping occurrences of the separator in the string. ..."

The behaviour of split with Python 2.3.3 is:
 >>> '\tb'.split()
['b']               # Bug?
 >>> '\tb'.split('\t')
['', 'b']
 >>> 'a\t\tb'.split()
['a', 'b']
 >>> 'a\t\tb'.split('\t')
['a', '', 'b']
 >>>

I think there are different interpretations of what a separator is. That 
is not necessarily a bug, because without stripping a new-line at the 
end of the string would yield a non-intuitive result list. However, the 
difference between split with and without the 'sep' argument should be 
documented.

      Andreas