why is python string split() not splitting

Question

I have the following python code.

class MainPage(BaseHandler):

    def post(self, location_id):
        reservations = self.request.get_all(\'reservations\'         


        

Answer 1

split does not split the original string, but returns a list

>>> r  = 'court2 13 0 2012 9 2'
>>> r.split(' ')
['court2', '13', '0', '2012', '9', '2']