String to List Question

[Philip Semanchuk]

On Jul 2, 2009, at 6:05 PM, Hanna Michelsen wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am brand new to python and I love it, but I've been having some  
> trouble
> with a file parser that I've been working on. It contains lines that  
> start
> with a name and then continue with names, nicknames and phone  
> numbers of
> people associated with that name. I need to create a list of the  
> names of
> people associated with each singular person (the first name in each  
> line).
> Each name/phone number is separated by a tab but if someone doesn't  
> have a
> nickname there are two tabs between their name and number.
>
> I've been trying to figure out how to test for two tabs, skip over  
> these
> people and move onto the next name but I just can't figure out how  
> that will
> work in python.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Hanna,
Are you familiar with a string's split() function? It sounds like just  
what you need.

http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#str.split

HTH
Philip