[Python-Dev] New string method - splitquoted

Thu May 18 15:20:52 CEST 2006

Dave Cinege wrote:
> Very often....make that very very very very very very very very very often,
> I find myself processing text in python that when .split()'ing a line, I'd 
> like to exclude the split for a 'quoted' item...quoted because it contains 
> whitespace or the sep char.
>> For example:
>> s = ' Chan: 11 SNR: 22 ESSID: "Spaced Out Wifi" Enc: On'

Even if you don't like Neal's more efficient regex-based version, the 
necessary utility function to do a two-pass split operation really isn't that 
tricky:
def split_quoted(text, sep=None, quote='"'):
 sections = text.split(quote)
 result = []
 for idx, unquoted_text in enumerate(sections[::2]):
 result.extend(unquoted_text.split(sep))
 quoted = 2*idx+1
 quoted_text = sections[quoted:quoted+1]
 result.extend(quoted_text)
 return result
 >>> split_quoted(' Chan: 11 SNR: 22 ESSID: "Spaced Out Wifi" Enc: On')
['Chan:', '11', 'SNR:', '22', 'ESSID:', 'Spaced Out Wifi', 'Enc:', 'On']
Given that this function (or a regex based equivalent) is easy enough to add 
if you do need it, I don't find the idea of increasing the complexity of the 
basic split API particularly compelling.
Cheers,
Nick.
-- 
Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia
---------------------------------------------------------------
 http://www.boredomandlaziness.org