Splitting string into strings

Question

Is there any way to split a string into many (not just 2) strings at a character, allowing blank strings, with the string names and order known? For example:

john..doe.1985 would split into first = 'john', middle = '', last = 'doe', and dob = 1985?

Answer 1

>>> first, middle, last, dob = 'john..doe.1985'.split('.')
>>> first
'john'
>>> middle
''
>>> last
'doe'
>>> dob
'1985'

Answer 2

You can use split method and iterable unpacking:

>>> first, middle, last, str_dob = "john..doe.1985".split(".")
>>> dob = int(str_dob)
>>> first
'john'
>>> middle
''
>>> last
'doe'
>>> dob
1985