tdd_even_better_split_method.py

def split_extents(extent_text):
    text_split = extent_text.split(" and ")

    extent_list = []
    # now that the sentence is split by "and", let's split each of
    # the two resulting items by commas, appending the result to
    # a new list
    for extent in text_split:
        extent_list.append(extent.split(","))

    # Now we have a list containing two lists: [['3 linear ft.', '1 oversize volume', ''], ['5 motion picture reels']]
    # We need to flatten it down to one list. We also need to remove
    # trailing whitespace from the front and end of each entry
    extent_list_2 = []
    for extent_list in extent_list:
        for extent in extent_list:
            extent_list_2.append(extent.strip(" "))

    # the split method left empty strings in the list, so we'll
    # use the "filter" function to remove them.
    return filter(None, extent_list_2)