> how can i split a string that contains white spaces and '_' > > any clue?
If the white spaces and the '_' should be applied equivalently on the input and you can enumerate all white space characters, you could do like this: def split_helper(list, delims): if not delims: return list ch = delims[0] lst = [] for item in list: lst += split_helper(item.split(ch), delims[1:]) return lst def split(str, delims): return split_helper([str], delims) >>> split("foo_bar eh", "_ ") ['foo', 'bar', 'eh'] Though I bet someone will post a one-line solution in the next 30 minutes. :) -- mvh Björn -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list