Hierarchical string delimiting not splitting

November 3, 2022

I am trying to create a function to parse a string based on multiple delimiters, but in a hierarchical format: i.e., try the first delimiter, then the second, then the third, etc.

This question seemingly provides a solution, specifically linking this comment.

# Split the team names, with a hierarchical delimiter
def split_new(inp, delims=['VS', '/ ' ,'/']):
    # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67574893/python-split-string-by-multiple-delimiters-following-a-hierarchy
    for d in delims:
        result = inp.split(d, maxsplit=1)
        if len(result) == 2: 
            return result
        else:
            return [inp] # If nothing worked, return the input  

test_strs = ['STACK/ OVERFLOW', 'STACK #11/00 VS OVERFLOW', 'STACK/OVERFLOW' ]

for ts in test_strs:
    res = split_new(ts)
    print(res)

"""
Output:
['STACK/ OVERFLOW']
['STACK #11/00 ', ' OVERFLOW']
['STACK/OVERFLOW']

Expected:
['STACK',' OVERFLOW']
['STACK #11/00 ', ' OVERFLOW']
['STACK', 'OVERFLOW']

"""

However, my results are not as expected. What am I missing?

>Solution :

Execute the "nothing worked" fallback AFTER trying all delimiters:

for d in delims:
    result = inp.split(d, maxsplit=1)
    if len(result) == 2: 
        return result
return [inp] # If nothing worked, return the input