What is common way to split string into list with CMAKE?

Question

Imagine I have the following string :

set(SEXY_STRING "I love CMake") 

then I want to obtain SEXY_LIST from SEXY_STRING so I can do

list(LENGTH SEXY_LIST len) 

and len is equal 3.

I've found several macros on web, but I really want to know how to do it in "natural" way. This operation seems to be very basic and widely used.

Answer 1

Replace your separator by a ;. I don't see any other way to do it.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)  set(SEXY_STRING "I love CMake") string(REPLACE " " ";" SEXY_LIST ${SEXY_STRING})  message(STATUS "string = ${SEXY_STRING}") # string = I love CMake  message(STATUS "list = ${SEXY_LIST}") # list = I;love;CMake  list(LENGTH SEXY_LIST len) message(STATUS "len = ${len}") # len = 3