[Tutor] Using split with a backslash

[Alan Gauld]

"Bryan Fodness" <bryan.fodness at gmail.com> wrote

> I have a data pair separated by a backslash.  
> I didn' t think it would see an end of line if the backslash 
> was inside the quotes.

Backslashes don't indicate end of line, they indicate a 
continuation of a line. ie they tell Python to *ignore* the 
end of line...

> Can this be done?  I don't have a choice in what the separator is.

Of course.

>>> LeafJawPositions='-42.000000000001\29.800000000001'
>>> LeafJawPositions
'-42.000000000001\x029.800000000001'

This is reporting \2 as \x02 - which is one character
You need to treat the string as raw characters:

>>> LeafJawPositions=r'-42.000000000001\29.800000000001'
>>> LeafJawPositions
'-42.000000000001\\29.800000000001'

Note the double \.

>>> LeafJawPositions.split('\\')
['-42.000000000001', '29.800000000001']
>>>

HTH,


-- 
Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld