How to get the first word in the string

Question

text is :

WYATT    - Ranked # 855 with    0.006   %
XAVIER   - Ranked # 587 with    0.013   %
YONG     - Ranked # 921 with    0.006   %
YOUNG    - Ranked # 8         


        

Answer 1

You don't need regex to split a string on whitespace:

In [1]: text = '''WYATT    - Ranked # 855 with    0.006   %
   ...: XAVIER   - Ranked # 587 with    0.013   %
   ...: YONG     - Ranked # 921 with    0.006   %
   ...: YOUNG    - Ranked # 807 with    0.007   %'''

In [2]: print '\n'.join(line.split()[0] for line in text.split('\n'))
WYATT
XAVIER
YONG
YOUNG