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Jeffery Jones
2,769 PointsWhy is the space needed in the parens after split?
why couldn't it just be:
first, last = input('Enter your full name: \n').split()
instead of:
first, last = input('Enter your full name: \n').split(' ')
I get the same result either way? Just curious
2 Answers

Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherHi there, Jeffery Jones! Just following up on what Jonathan Grieve and Brandon White have posted. Both are valid. But they do slightly different things, though, for your purposes, it will achieve the same results.
The .split()
with no arguments splits on all white space. That includes spaces, tabs, and newline characters.
However, the .split(' ')
splits explicitly on a space. It won't split on tabs and newline characters.
Hope this helps!

Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,254 PointsIt's what's called a separation parameter
. Something that provides separation in your list. It could be a comma, or a dash or an empty string as you're doing.
For eample
apples, oranges, pears

Brandon White
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 35,772 PointsFollowing up on what Jonathan has said, "It's better to be explicit, than implicit". With the second way, it's very obvious what delimiter is being used to split up the user's response.
Jeffery Jones
2,769 PointsJeffery Jones
2,769 Pointsvery helpful, thank you both so much!