splitting a string based on tab in the file

Question

I have file that contains values separated by tab (\"\\t\"). I am trying to create a list and store all values of file in the list. But I get some problem. Here is my code.<

Answer 1

Python has support for CSV files in the eponymous csv module. It is relatively misnamed since it support much more that just comma separated values.

If you need to go beyond basic word splitting you should take a look. Say, for example, because you are in need to deal with quoted values...

Answer 2

An other regex-based solution:

>>> strs = "foo\tbar\t\tspam"

>>> r = re.compile(r'([^\t]*)\t*')
>>> r.findall(strs)[:-1]
['foo', 'bar', 'spam']

Answer 3

You can use regex here:

>>> import re
>>> strs = "foo\tbar\t\tspam"
>>> re.split(r'\t+', strs)
['foo', 'bar', 'spam']

update:

You can use str.rstrip to get rid of trailing '\t' and then apply regex.

>>> yas = "yas\t\tbs\tcda\t\t"
>>> re.split(r'\t+', yas.rstrip('\t'))
['yas', 'bs', 'cda']

Answer 4

You can use regexp to do this:

import re
patt = re.compile("[^\t]+")


s = "a\t\tbcde\t\tef"
patt.findall(s)
['a', 'bcde', 'ef']  

Answer 5

Split on tab, but then remove all blank matches.

text = "hi\tthere\t\t\tmy main man"
print [splits for splits in text.split("\t") if splits is not ""]

Outputs:

['hi', 'there', 'my main man']