Python String split()

The split() method breaks up a string at the specified separator and returns a list of strings.

Example

text = 'Python is a fun programming language'

# split the text from space
print(text.split(' '))

# Output: ['Python', 'is', 'a', 'fun', 'programming', 'language']

Syntax of String split()

The syntax of split() is:

str.split(separator, maxsplit)

split() Parameters

The split() method takes a maximum of 2 parameters:

• separator (optional)- Delimiter at which splits occur. If not provided, the string is splitted at whitespaces.
• maxsplit (optional) - Maximum number of splits. If not provided, there is no limit on the number of splits.

split() Return Value

The split() method returns a list of strings.

Example 1: How split() works in Python?

text= 'Love thy neighbor'

# splits at space
print(text.split())

grocery = 'Milk, Chicken, Bread'

# splits at ','
print(grocery.split(', '))

# Splits at ':'
print(grocery.split(':'))

Output

['Love', 'thy', 'neighbor']
['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread']
['Milk, Chicken, Bread']

Example 2: How split() works when maxsplit is specified?

grocery = 'Milk, Chicken, Bread, Butter'

# maxsplit: 2
print(grocery.split(', ', 2))

# maxsplit: 1
print(grocery.split(', ', 1))

# maxsplit: 5
print(grocery.split(', ', 5))

# maxsplit: 0
print(grocery.split(', ', 0))

Output

['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread, Butter']
['Milk', 'Chicken, Bread, Butter']
['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread', 'Butter']
['Milk, Chicken, Bread, Butter']

If maxsplit is specified, the list will have a maximum of maxsplit+1 items.