Why isn't SPLIT splitting my strings

[John Henry]

Meaning:

import re

newString= re.split('[; ()\[\]", result)



Nick Vatamaniuc wrote:
> The regular string split does not take a _class_ of characters as the
> separator, it only takes one separator. Your example suggests that you
> expect that _any_ of the characters "; ()[]" could be a separator.
> If you want to use a regular expression as a list of separators, then
> you need to use the split function from the regular expression module
> (re):
> http://docs.python.org/lib/node46.html
>
> Hope this helps,
> Nick V.
>
>
> ronrsr wrote:
> > I'm trying to break up the result tuple into keyword phrases.  The
> > keyword phrases are separated by a ;  -- the split function is not
> > working the way I believe it should be. Can anyone see what I"m doing
> > wrong?
> >
> > bests,
> >
> > -rsr-
> >
> >
> >
> >  print "newstring =", str(result[i][0])
> >         print "just split", str(result[i][0]).split('; ()[]"')
> >         zd.append(str(result[i][0]).split('; ()[]"'))
> >
> >
> > result= (('Agricultural subsidies; Foreign aid',), ('Agriculture;
> > Sustainable Agriculture - Support; Organic Agriculture; Pesticides, US,
> > Childhood Development, Birth Defects; Toxic Chemicals',),
> > ('Antibiotics, Animals',), ('Agricultural Subsidies, Global Trade',),
> > ('Agricultural Subsidies',), ('Biodiversity',), ('Citizen Activism',),
> > ('Community Gardens',), ('Cooperatives',), ('Dieting',), ('Agriculture,
> > Cotton',), ('Agriculture, Global Trade',), ('Pesticides, Monsanto',),
> > ('Agriculture, Seed',), ('Coffee, Hunger',), ('Pollution, Water,
> > Feedlots',), ('Food Prices',), ('Agriculture, Workers',), ('Animal
> > Feed, Corn, Pesticides',), ('Aquaculture',), ('Chemical Warfare',),
> > ('Compost',), ('Debt',), ('Consumerism',), ('Fear',), ('Pesticides, US,
> > Childhood Development, Birth Defects',), ('Corporate Reform,
> > Personhood (Dem. Book)',), ('Corporate Reform,  Personhood, Farming
> > (Dem. Book)',), ('Crime Rates, Legislation, Education',), ('Debt,
> > Credit Cards',), ('Democracy',), ('Population, World',), ('Income',),
> > ('Democracy, Corporate
> >
> >
> >
> > partial results:
> >
> > string a =  Agricultural subsidies; Foreign aid
> > newstring = Agricultural subsidies; Foreign aid
> > just split ['Agricultural subsidies; Foreign aid']
> > newstring = Agriculture; Sustainable Agriculture - Support; Organic
> > Agriculture; Pesticides, US, Childhood Development, Birth Defects;
> > Toxic Chemicals
> > just split ['Agriculture; Sustainable Agriculture - Support; Organic
> > Agriculture; Pesticides, US, Childhood Development, Birth Defects;
> > Toxic Chemicals']
> > newstring = Antibiotics, Animals
> > just split ['Antibiotics, Animals']