Python regex split without empty string

Question

I have the following file names that exhibit this pattern:

000014_L_20111007T084734-20111008T023142.txt
000014_U_20111007T084734-20111008T023142.txt
...
         


        

Answer 1

>>> f='000014_L_20111007T084734-20111008T023142.txt'
>>> f[10:-4].split('-')
['0111007T084734', '20111008T023142']

or, somewhat more general:

>>> f[f.rfind('_')+1:-4].split('-')
['20111007T084734', '20111008T023142']