why is python string split() not splitting

Question

I have the following python code.

class MainPage(BaseHandler):

    def post(self, location_id):
        reservations = self.request.get_all(\'reservations\'         


        

Answer 1

split does not modify the string. It returns a list of the split pieces. If you want to use that list, you need to assign it to something with, e.g., r = r.split(' ').

Answer 2

split does not split the original string, but returns a list

>>> r  = 'court2 13 0 2012 9 2'
>>> r.split(' ')
['court2', '13', '0', '2012', '9', '2']

Answer 3

Change

r.split(' ')
a.split(' ')

to

r = r.split(' ')
a = a.split(' ')

Explanation: split doesn't split the string in place, but rather returns a split version.

From documentaion:

split(...)

    S.split([sep [,maxsplit]]) -> list of strings

    Return a list of the words in the string S, using sep as the
    delimiter string.  If maxsplit is given, at most maxsplit
    splits are done. If sep is not specified or is None, any
    whitespace string is a separator and empty strings are removed
    from the result.