Splitting string and removing whitespace Python
Question: I would like to split a String by comma `','` and remove whitespace from the
beginning and end of each split.

For example, if I have the string:

`"QVOD, Baidu Player"`

I would like to split and strip to:

`['QVOD', 'Baidu Player']`

Is there an elegant way of doing this? Possibly using a list comprehension?


Answer: Python has a spectacular function called `split` that will keep you from
having to use a regex or something similar. You can split your string by just
calling `my_string.split(delimiter)`

After that python has a `strip` function which will remove all whitespace from
the beginning and end of a string.

    
    
    [item.strip() for item in my_string.split(',')]
    

Benchmarks for the two methods are below:

    
    
    >>> import timeit
    >>> timeit.timeit('map(str.strip, "QVOD, Baidu Player".split(","))', number=100000)
    0.3525350093841553
    >>> timeit.timeit('map(stripper, "QVOD, Baidu Player".split(","))','stripper=str.strip', number=100000)
    0.31575989723205566
    >>> timeit.timeit("[item.strip() for item in 'QVOD, Baidu Player'.split(',')]", number=100000)
    0.246596097946167
    

So the list comp is about 33% faster than the map.

Probably also worth noting that as far as being "pythonic" goes, Guido himself
votes for the LC. <http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=98196>

