why is python string split() not splitting

Question

I have the following python code.

class MainPage(BaseHandler):

    def post(self, location_id):
        reservations = self.request.get_all('reservations')
        for r in reservations:
            a=str(r)
            logging.info("r: %s " % r)
            logging.info("lenr: %s " % len(r))
            logging.info("a: %s " % a)
            logging.info("lena: %s " % len(a))
            r.split(' ')
            a.split(' ')
            logging.info("split r: %s " % r)
            logging.info("split a: %s " % a)

I get the following log printout.

INFO     2012-09-02 17:58:51,605 views.py:98] r: court2 13 0 2012 9 2 
INFO     2012-09-02 17:58:51,605 views.py:99] lenr: 20 
INFO     2012-09-02 17:58:51,605 views.py:100] a: court2 13 0 2012 9 2 
INFO     2012-09-02 17:58:51,606 views.py:101] lena: 20 
INFO     2012-09-02 17:58:51,606 views.py:108] split r: court2 13 0 2012 9 2 
INFO     2012-09-02 17:58:51,606 views.py:109] split a: court2 13 0 2012 9 2 

I get the same log printout if instead of split(' ') I use split(), btw.

Why is split not splitting the result into a list with 6 entries? I suppose the problem is that http request is involved, because my tests in the gae interactive console get the expected result.

Answer 1

split does not modify the string. It returns a list of the split pieces. If you want to use that list, you need to assign it to something with, e.g., r = r.split(' ').

Answer 2

split does not split the original string, but returns a list

>>> r  = 'court2 13 0 2012 9 2'
>>> r.split(' ')
['court2', '13', '0', '2012', '9', '2']