[Python-ideas] This seems like a wart to me...

[Ron Adam]

Adam Olsen wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 4:58 PM, Ron Adam <rrr at ronadam.com> wrote:
>> There doesn't seem to be an obvious way to split on different characters.
>>
>>
>> A new to python programmer might try:
>>
>>>>> '1 (123) 456-7890'.split(' ()-')
>> ['1 (123) 456-7890']
>>
>> Expecting: ['1', '123', '456', '7890']
>>
>>
>>>>> '1 (123) 456-7890'.split([' ', '(', ')', '-'])
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>>  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
>> TypeError: expected a character buffer object
> 
>>>> re.split('[ ()-]', '1 (123) 456-7890')
> ['1', '', '123', '', '456', '7890']
>>>> re.split('[ ()-]+', '1 (123) 456-7890')
> ['1', '123', '456', '7890']
> 
> str.split() handles the simplest, most common cases.  Let's not
> clutter it up with a bad[1] impersonation of regex.
> 
> 
> [1] And if you thought regex was ugly enough to begin with...

These examples was just what a "new" programmer might attempt.  I have a 
feeling that most new programmers do not attempt regular expressions ie.. 
the re module, until sometime after they have learned the basics of python.

Ron