split can be used to convert a string into a list. By default, split will be done using whitespace.

#!/usr/bin/python3
foo = "data    more data   even more data"
bar = foo.split()
print(f"foo = {foo}")
print(f"bar = {bar}")

Running this script should output the following.

foo = "data    more data   even more data"
bar = ['data', 'more', 'data', 'even', 'more', 'data']

In this example, the foo variable is split at each comma.

#!/usr/bin/python3
foo = "data,more data,even more data"
bar = foo.split(',')
print(f"foo = {foo}")
print(f"bar = {bar}")

Running this script should output the following.

foo = "data,more data,even more data"
bar = ['data', 'more data', 'even more data']

In this example, since there is no delimiter that can be used to split foo, the following can be used.

#!/usr/bin/python3
foo = "ABCD"
bar = []
bar[:0] = foo
print(f"foo = {foo}")
print(f"bar = {bar}")

Which should produce the following.

foo = "ABCD"
bar = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']

In this example, each item will have a unique index number.

• data = 0
• more data = 1
• even more data = 2

Here is how you can print a item using an index number.

#!/usr/bin/python3
foo = "data,more data,even more data"
bar = foo.split(',')

try:
  bar[1]
except Exception as exception:
  print(f"got the following exception when trying bar[1] - {exception}")
else:
  print(bar[1])

Running this script should output the following, the value of index 1.

more data