Python split for lists

Question

If we have a list of strings in python and want to create sublists based on some special string how should we do?

For instance

Answer 1

One possible implementation using itertools

>>> l
['data', 'more data', '', 'data 2', 'more data 2', 'danger', '', 'date3', 'lll']
>>> it_l = iter(l)
>>> from itertools import takewhile, dropwhile
>>> [[e] + list(takewhile(lambda e: e != "", it_l)) for e in it_l if e != ""]
[['data', 'more data'], ['data 2', 'more data 2', 'danger'], ['date3', 'lll']]

---

Note*

This is as fast as using groupby

>>> stmt_dsm = """
[list(group) for k, group in groupby(l, lambda x: x == "") if not k]
"""
>>> stmt_ab = """
it_l = iter(l)
[[e] + list(takewhile(lambda e: e != "", it_l)) for e in it_l if e != ""]
"""
>>> t_ab = timeit.Timer(stmt = stmt_ab, setup = "from __main__ import l, dropwhile, takewhile")
>>> t_dsm = timeit.Timer(stmt = stmt_dsm, setup = "from __main__ import l, groupby")
>>> t_ab.timeit(100000)
1.6863486541265047
>>> t_dsm.timeit(100000)
1.5298066765462863
>>> t_ab.timeit(100000)
1.735611326163962
>>>