Split string with multiple delimiters in Python

Do a str.replace('; ', ', ') and then a str.split(', ')

Here's a safe way for any iterable of delimiters, using regular expressions:

>>> import re
>>> delimiters = "a", "...", "(c)"
>>> example = "stackoverflow (c) is awesome... isn't it?"
>>> regex_pattern = '|'.join(map(re.escape, delimiters))
>>> regex_pattern
'a|\\.\\.\\.|\\(c\\)'
>>> re.split(regex_pattern, example)
['st', 'ckoverflow ', ' is ', 'wesome', " isn't it?"]

re.escape allows to build the pattern automatically and have the delimiters escaped nicely.

Here's this solution as a function for your copy-pasting pleasure:

def split(delimiters, string, maxsplit=0):
    import re
    regex_pattern = '|'.join(map(re.escape, delimiters))
    return re.split(regex_pattern, string, maxsplit)

If you're going to split often using the same delimiters, compile your regular expression beforehand like described and use RegexObject.split.

---

If you'd like to leave the original delimiters in the string, you can change the regex to use a lookbehind assertion instead:

>>> import re
>>> delimiters = "a", "...", "(c)"
>>> example = "stackoverflow (c) is awesome... isn't it?"
>>> regex_pattern = '|'.join('(?<={})'.format(re.escape(delim)) for delim in delimiters)
>>> regex_pattern
'(?<=a)|(?<=\\.\\.\\.)|(?<=\\(c\\))'
>>> re.split(regex_pattern, example)
['sta', 'ckoverflow (c)', ' is a', 'wesome...', " isn't it?"]

(replace ?<= with ?= to attach the delimiters to the righthand side, instead of left)

Luckily, Python has this built-in :)

import re
re.split('; |, ', string_to_split)

Update:
Following your comment:

>>> a='Beautiful, is; better*than\nugly'
>>> import re
>>> re.split('; |, |\*|\n',a)
['Beautiful', 'is', 'better', 'than', 'ugly']