Split a string by spaces -- preserving quoted substrings -- in Python
I see regex approaches here that look complex and/or wrong. This surprises me, because regex syntax can easily describe "whitespace or thing-surrounded-by-quotes", and most regex engines (including Python's) can split on a regex. So if you're going to use regexes, why not just say exactly what you mean?:
test = 'this is "a test"' # or "this is 'a test'"# pieces = [p for p in re.split("( |[\\\"'].*[\\\"'])", test) if p.strip()]# From comments, use this:pieces = [p for p in re.split("( |\\\".*?\\\"|'.*?')", test) if p.strip()]Explanation:
[\\\"'] = double-quote or single-quote.* = anything( |X) = space or X.strip() = remove space and empty-string separatorsshlex probably provides more features, though.