How to quickly parse a list of strings

Question

If I want to split a list of words separated by a delimiter character, I can use

>>> \'abc,foo,bar\'.split(\',\')
[\'abc\', \'foo\', \'bar\']


        

Answer 1

The CSV module should be able to do that for you

Answer 2

import csv

input = ['abc,"a string, with a comma","another, one"']
parser = csv.reader(input)

for fields in parser:
  for i,f in enumerate(fields):
    print i,f    # in Python 3 and up, print is a function; use: print(i,f)

Result:

0 abc
1 a string, with a comma
2 another, one