How to split a string using an empty separator in Python

Question

What is a good way to do some_string.split('') in python? This syntax gives an error:

a = '1111'
a.split('')

ValueError: empty separator

I would like to obtain:

['1', '1', '1', '1']

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17380592/how-to-split-a-string-using-an-empty-separator-in-python

Answer 1

Use list():

>>> list('1111')
['1', '1', '1', '1']

Alternatively, you can use map() (Python 2.7 only):

>>> map(None, '1111')
['1', '1', '1', '1']

Time differences:

$ python -m timeit "list('1111')"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.483 usec per loop
$ python -m timeit "map(None, '1111')"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.431 usec per loop