def find_and_sep(inputstr, thing_to_find):
#thing to find is a string that is a regular expression
#finds thing_to_find and returns tuple of the rest (before, thing, after)
inputstr.strip()
#match it
m=re.match(thing_to_find, inputstr) #match first instance
if(m==None):
return ""
start = inputstr[:m.start()]
mid = inputstr[m.start():m.end()]
end = inputstr[m.end():]
tuple_x = start,mid,end
return tuple_x
my problem is when I give it
ins="blahCOMblah"
tmp=find_and_sep(ins, "(COM)?")
It only puts the whole thing in the last of the 3tuple
I want it to split into <blah,COM,blah>
Anyone know how to fix this?