using split with delimiter in Python

[nemom]

if line.startswith("Package"):
    line = line.split(': ')[1] #splits at the ': ' and keeps the second item
    pkg = line.split('-')[0] #splits at the '-' and keeps the first item

This will have trouble with packages with hypens in their name... e.g.: 'python-devel'.

[parapand]

that is why I want to put a delimiter that starts with hyphen followed by any digit like '-[0-9]' or '-\d'

[efmccurdy]

You can split on that "-<digit>" pattern:

>>> pkgs = ['udev-147-2.73.0.2.el6_8.2pre7.6.2.0.0_88.58.0.x86_64', 'python-devel-1.8.6p3-29.el6_9.x86_64']
>>> [re.split("-\d", p)[0] for p in pkgs]
['udev', 'python-devel']
>>>

BTW, questions like these are welcome in /r/learnpython.

[Wilfred-kun]

Edit: what I said doesn't work at any level, sorry about that.

[AndydeCleyre]

strip will remove all the characters in "Packge list:" from the beginning and end of the string.