split() description not fully accurate

[kace]

BPO	1380970
Nosy	@rhettinger

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/rhettinger'
closed_at = <Date 2007-01-06.02:19:22.000>
created_at = <Date 2005-12-14.23:33:49.000>
labels = ['docs']
title = 'split() description not fully accurate'
updated_at = <Date 2007-01-06.02:19:22.000>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/kace'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2007-01-06.02:19:22.000>
actor = 'rhettinger'
assignee = 'rhettinger'
closed = True
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2005-12-14.23:33:49.000>
creator = 'kace'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 1380970
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['27070', '27071', '27072', '27073']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['collinwinter', 'rhettinger', 'kace']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue1380970'
versions = ['Python 2.4']

[kace]

The page http://docs.python.org/lib/string-methods.html
reads, in part, "If sep is not specified or is None, a
different splitting algorithm is applied. First,
whitespace characters (spaces, tabs, newlines, returns,
and formfeeds) are stripped from both ends." However,
this is not the behaviour that I'm seeing. (Although,
I should note that I'd find the described behaviour
more desirable.) Example,

>>> trow = '1586\tsome-int-name\tNODES: 111_222\n'
>>> print trow
1234    some-int-name   NODES: 111_222

>>> trow.split(None,2)
['1234', 'some-int-name', 'NODES: 111_222\n']
# end example.

Notice that the trailing newline has not been stripped
as the documentation said it should be. Thanks all.

K.C.

[kace]

Logged In: YES
user_id=741142

Also, (oops) the example comes from the most recent version:

$ python
Python 2.4.2 (#2, Oct 4 2005, 13:57:10)
[GCC 3.4.2 [FreeBSD] 20040728] on freebsd5
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more
information.

>>

[collinwinter]

Logged In: YES
user_id=1344176

I've provided a patch for this: bpo-1414934.

[rhettinger]

I prefer the docs as they currently read.