[Tutor] problem with str.count and str.split

[Tim Johnson]

Hello:
    I am importing TAB-delimited text data.

    Each line is read in as a string with the newline removed.

    Each line is parsed into a list with TAB as a delimiter.
    code:
      vals = line.split('\t') 

    It is expected that this line should have 75 TAB characters
    imbedded, and that the resulting list (vals) should have 76 members,
    
    An exception is thrown when a line is 'split' into a list
    with only 44 members, and when the exception is thrown, 
    I use line.count('\t') to retrieve the number of embedded
    TABS and line.count('\t') returns the number 43.

    Visual Inspection:
          If I look at this line in an editor that allows 
          TABS to be visible, I can manually count 75 TAB characters.
            
    Alternative Methods:
          This service was prototyped in another
          programming language (rebol) and all lines are
          being split successfully, finding 75 TABS and returning
          a list with 75 members.

   I'd welcome comments, suggestions on this matter. I'm not about
   to get goofy and claim I've found a bug in python, I'm guessing
   that I should be using a more pythonesque approach to parsing
   these lines.

thanks
tim
-- 
Tim Johnson <tim at johnsons-web.com>
      http://www.alaska-internet-solutions.com