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My first attempt at python

Will Ware wware at world.std.com
Fri Dec 8 09:01:44 EST 2000 
Jason Stewart (kahuna01 at hotmail.com) wrote:
> 	This is the first piece of code that I wrote in Python...
> 	This same functionality might be in a module somewhere, but I
> wrote it for practice. Its a string tokenizer.

In the "string" module, there's a function called "string.split"
that does this same thing. The Python libraries are vast deep
repositories of boundless ingenuity:
http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/lib.html

> def tokenize(string_to_chop):
> 	"Break a string up into individual words"
> 	last_space = 0
> 	token = []
> 	for index in range(len(string_to_chop)):
> 		if string_to_chop[index:index+1] == " ":
> 			token.append(string_to_chop[last_space:index])
> 			last_space =  index + 1
> 		elif (index+1 == len(string_to_chop)):
> 		    token.append(string_to_chop[last_space:index+1])
> 	return token

Instead of writing "string_to_chip[index:index+1]", you can just write
"string_to_chop[index]". Two lines later you write "last_space = index + 1"
which suggests that you expect the tokens on the line to always be
separated by exactly one space; otherwise you'll end up with confusing
results. Try tokenize("abc     def     ghi") and see what it does.
-- 
# - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
# Resistance is futile. Capacitance is efficacious.
# Will Ware	email:    wware @ world.std.com
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