How to convert a string to a list of words in python?

Strings are one of the most commonly used data types. In this article, we are going to find out how to convert a string to a list of words in Python.

Converting the string into a list is helpful when dealing with user inputs or when we want to manipulate individual words in a string. Python provides several ways to achieve this. Let's explore them one by one.

Using Python str.split() Method

Python str.split() method accepts a separator as a parameter, splits the string at the specified separator, and returns the result as a list. If we use the split() method without any arguments, it splits the string at every whitespace character and returns a list where each element is a word from the original string.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of the Python str.split() method −

str.split(separator, maxsplit)

Basic Usage

Let's look at the following example, where we are going to consider the basic usage of the split() method ?

str1 = "Welcome To TutorialsPoint"
result = str1.split()
print(result)

['Welcome', 'To', 'TutorialsPoint']

Using Custom Separator

Consider another scenario, where we are passing the comma(,) as the argument to the split() method −

str1 = "Activa,Vespa,Pept,Access"
result = str1.split(',')
print(result)

['Activa', 'Vespa', 'Pept', 'Access']

Handling Multiple Spaces

In the following example, we are going to use list comprehension along with the split() method to remove the unwanted empty strings ?

str1 = "Hi  Hello   Vanakam  "
result = [x for x in str1.split() if x]
print(result)

['Hi', 'Hello', 'Vanakam']

Note: The split() method without arguments automatically handles multiple spaces and returns clean results without empty strings.

Using re.split() Method

The Python re.split() method is used to split a string by the occurrence of a specified regular expression pattern. This method is powerful when dealing with complex splitting patterns.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of Python re.split() method −

re.split(pattern, string, maxsplit=0, flags=0)

Example

Here, we are using the regular expression '\d+' to match the digits. The re.split() method splits the string at every occurrence of the digits, returning the list of words that are separated by digits ?

import re

str1 = "Audi 1123 Benz 234 Ciaz"
result = re.split(r'\d+', str1)
result = [word.strip() for word in result if word.strip()]
print(result)

['Audi', 'Benz', 'Ciaz']

Comparison

Conclusion

Use str.split() for basic string-to-list conversion with whitespace or simple separators. Use re.split() when you need complex pattern-based splitting with regular expressions.