Python split string without splitting escaped character

Question

Is there a way to split a string without splitting escaped character? For example, I have a string and want to split by \':\' and not by \'\\:\'

http\\://ww         


        

Answer 1

There is no builtin function for that. Here's an efficient, general and tested function, which even supports delimiters of any length:

def escape_split(s, delim):
    i, res, buf = 0, [], ''
    while True:
        j, e = s.find(delim, i), 0
        if j < 0:  # end reached
            return res + [buf + s[i:]]  # add remainder
        while j - e and s[j - e - 1] == '\\':
            e += 1  # number of escapes
        d = e // 2  # number of double escapes
        if e != d * 2:  # odd number of escapes
            buf += s[i:j - d - 1] + s[j]  # add the escaped char
            i = j + 1  # and skip it
            continue  # add more to buf
        res.append(buf + s[i:j - d])
        i, buf = j + len(delim), ''  # start after delim