Split string using a newline delimiter with Python

Question

I need to delimit the string which has new line in it. How would I achieve it? Please refer below code.

Input:

data = """a,b,c
d,e,f
g,h,i
j,k,l"""

Output desired:

['a,b,c', 'd,e,f', 'g,h,i', 'j,k,l']

I have tried the below approaches:

1. output = data.split('\n')
2. output = data.split('/n')
3. output = data.rstrip().split('\n')

Answer 1

str.splitlines method should give you exactly that.

>>> data = """a,b,c
... d,e,f
... g,h,i
... j,k,l"""
>>> data.splitlines()
['a,b,c', 'd,e,f', 'g,h,i', 'j,k,l']

Answer 2

data = """a,b,c
d,e,f
g,h,i
j,k,l"""

print(data.split())       # ['a,b,c', 'd,e,f', 'g,h,i', 'j,k,l']

str.split, by default, splits by all the whitespace characters. If the actual string has any other whitespace characters, you might want to use

print(data.split("\n"))   # ['a,b,c', 'd,e,f', 'g,h,i', 'j,k,l']

Or as @Ashwini Chaudhary suggested in the comments, you can use

print(data.splitlines())

Answer 3

If you want to split only by newlines, you can use str.splitlines():

Example:

>>> data = """a,b,c
... d,e,f
... g,h,i
... j,k,l"""
>>> data
'a,b,c\nd,e,f\ng,h,i\nj,k,l'
>>> data.splitlines()
['a,b,c', 'd,e,f', 'g,h,i', 'j,k,l']

With str.split() your case also works:

>>> data = """a,b,c
... d,e,f
... g,h,i
... j,k,l"""
>>> data
'a,b,c\nd,e,f\ng,h,i\nj,k,l'
>>> data.split()
['a,b,c', 'd,e,f', 'g,h,i', 'j,k,l']

However if you have spaces (or tabs) it will fail:

>>> data = """
... a, eqw, qwe
... v, ewr, err
... """
>>> data
'\na, eqw, qwe\nv, ewr, err\n'
>>> data.split()
['a,', 'eqw,', 'qwe', 'v,', 'ewr,', 'err']

Answer 4

There is a method specifically for this purpose:

data.splitlines()
['a,b,c', 'd,e,f', 'g,h,i', 'j,k,l']

Answer 5

Here you go:

>>> data = """a,b,c
d,e,f
g,h,i
j,k,l"""
>>> data.split()  # split automatically splits through \n and space
['a,b,c', 'd,e,f', 'g,h,i', 'j,k,l']
>>> 

Answer 6

Since the split gets a string as separator you should have additional back slash output = data.split('\n')

Answer 7

We can also use regex's split method too.

import re

data = """a,b,c
d,e,f
g,h,i
j,k,l"""

output = re.split("\n", data)

print(output) #['a,b,c', 'd,e,f', 'g,h,i', 'j,k,l']

Hope this will help somebody.