How to get the first word in the string
Regex is unnecessary for this. Just use some_string.split(' ', 1)[0] or some_string.partition(' ')[0].
If you want to feel especially sly, you can write it as this:
(firstWord, rest) = yourLine.split(maxsplit=1)
This is supposed to bring the best from both worlds:
- optimality tweak with
maxsplitwhile splitting with any whitespace - improved reliability and readability, as argued by the author of the technique.
I kind of fell in love with this solution and it's general unpacking capability, so I had to share it.