Split a String and get First or Last element in Python

# Table of Contents

1. Split a String and get the First element in Python
2. Split a string and get the Last element in Python
3. Split a string and get the First element using partition()
4. Split a string and get the Last element using rpartition()

# Split a string and get the First element in Python

To split a string and get the first element:

1. Use the str.split() method, setting maxsplit to 1.
2. Access the list element at index 0.

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my_str = 'bobby_hadz_com'

first = my_str.split('_', 1)[0]

print(first)  # 👉️ 'bobby'

The str.split() method splits the string into a list of substrings using a delimiter.

The method takes the following 2 parameters:

When the maxsplit argument is set to 1, at most 1 split is done.

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my_str = 'a_b_c_d'

# 👇️ ['a', 'b_c_d']
print(my_str.split('_', 1))

Python indexes are zero-based, so the first character in a string has an index of 0, and the last character has an index of -1 or len(a_string) - 1.

If the separator is not found in the string, a list containing only 1 element is returned.

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my_str = 'abcd'

first = my_str.split('_', 1)[0]

print(first)  # 👉️ 'abcd'

# Removing the leading and trailing separator before splitting

If your string starts with the specific separator, you might get a confusing result.

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my_str = '_a_b_c_d_'

# 👇️ ['', 'a_b_c_d_']
print(my_str.split('_', 1))

first = my_str.split('_', 1)[0]

print(repr(first))  # 👉️ ""

You can use the str.strip() method to remove the leading or trailing separator.

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my_str = '_a_b_c_d_'

# 👇️ ['a', 'b_c_d']
print(my_str.strip('_').split('_', 1))

first = my_str.strip('_').split('_', 1)[0]

print(first)  # 👉️ "a"

We used the str.strip() method to remove any leading or trailing underscores from the string before calling the split() method.

# Split a string and get the Last element in Python

To split a string and get the last element:

1. Use the str.rsplit() method to split the string from the right.
2. Set the maxsplit argument to 1.
3. Access the list element at index -1.

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my_str = 'bobby,hadz,com'

last = my_str.rsplit(',', 1)[-1]

print(last)  # 👉️ 'com'

We used the rsplit() method to split the string from the right.

The str.rsplit() method returns a list of the words in the string using the provided separator as the delimiter string.

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my_str = 'bobby hadz com'

print(my_str.rsplit(' '))  # 👉️ ['bobby', 'hadz', 'com']
print(my_str.rsplit(' ', 1))  # 👉️ ['bobby hadz', 'com']

The method takes the following 2 arguments:

Except for splitting from the right, rsplit() behaves like split().

When the maxsplit argument is set to 1, at most 1 split is done.

The last step is to access the last element in the list by accessing the list item at index -1.

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my_str = 'bobby,hadz,com,abc'

last = my_str.rsplit(',', 1)[-1]

print(last)  # 👉️ 'abc'

Python indexes are zero-based, so the first character in a string has an index of 0, and the last character has an index of -1 or len(a_string) - 1.

# Split a string and get the Last element using split()

You can also use the str.split() method in a similar way.

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my_str = 'bobby-hadz-com'

last = my_str.split('-')[-1]

print(last)  # 👉️ 'com'

If your string ends with the specific separator, you might get a confusing result.

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my_str = 'bobby-hadz-com-'

last = my_str.rsplit('-', 1)[-1]

# 👇️ ['bobby-hadz-com', '']
print(my_str.rsplit('-', 1))

print(last)  # 👉️ ""

You can use the str.strip() method to remove the leading or trailing separator.

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my_str = 'bobby-hadz-com-'

last = my_str.strip('-').rsplit('-', 1)[-1]

print(last)  # 👉️ "com"

We used the str.strip() method to remove any leading or trailing hyphens from the string before calling the rsplit() method.

# Split a string and get the First element using partition()

You can also use the str.partition() method to split a string and get the first element.

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my_str = 'bobby-hadz-com'

result = my_str.partition('-')[0]

print(result)  # 👉️ bobby

The str.partition() method splits the string at the first occurrence of the provided separator.

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my_str = 'bobby!hadz!com'
separator = '!'

# 👇️ ('bobby', '!', 'hadz!com')
print(my_str.partition(separator))

The method returns a tuple containing 3 elements - the part before the separator, the separator, and the part after the separator.

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my_str = 'bobby-hadz-com'

# 👇️ ('bobby-hadz-com', '', '')
print(my_str.partition('!'))

In our case, the expression would return the entire string if the separator is not contained in the string.

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my_str = 'bobby-hadz-com'

result = my_str.partition('!')[0]
print(result)  # 👉️ bobby-hadz-com

# Split a string and get the Last element using rpartition()

You can also use the str.rpartition method to split a string and get the last element.

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my_str = 'bobby-hadz-com'

result = my_str.rpartition('-')[-1]
print(result)  # 👉️ com

The str.rpartition() method splits the string at the last occurrence of the provided separator.

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my_str = 'bobbyhadz.com/articles/python'

result = my_str.rpartition('/')[2]
print(result)  # 👉️ 'python'

# 👇️ ('bobbyhadz.com/articles', '/', 'python')
print(my_str.rpartition('/'))

The method returns a tuple containing 3 elements - the part before the separator, the separator, and the part after the separator.

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my_str = 'bobby-hadz-com'

# 👇️ ('', '', 'bobby-hadz-com')
print(my_str.rpartition('!'))

Accessing the tuple at an index of -1 would return the entire string if the separator is not contained in the string.

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my_str = 'bobby-hadz-com'

result = my_str.rpartition('1')[-1]
print(result)  # 👉️ bobby-hadz-com

I've also written an article on how to split a string and remove the whitespace.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

• Split a String into a List of Integers in Python
• Split a String into multiple Variables in Python
• Split a String into Text and Number in Python
• How to convert a String to a Tuple in Python
• Split a string with multiple delimiters in Python
• How to Split a string by Whitespace in Python
• Split a String, Reverse it and Join it back in Python
• Split a string without removing the delimiter in Python
• Flake8: f-string is missing placeholders [Solved]
• ValueError: DataFrame constructor not properly called [Fix]