SF 582071 clarified the .split() method's docstring to note that sep=None

will trigger splitting on any whitespace.

diff --git a/Objects/stringobject.c b/Objects/stringobject.c
index b73eaa8bfaf751cb0c4b4845850ed1c4f0ddfdac..7311df04a4007c59e629702b3ea56195d3276043 100644 (file)
--- a/Objects/stringobject.c
+++ b/Objects/stringobject.c
@@ -1098,8 +1098,8 @@ static char split__doc__[] =
 \n\
 Return a list of the words in the string S, using sep as the\n\
 delimiter string.  If maxsplit is given, at most maxsplit\n\
-splits are done. If sep is not specified, any whitespace string\n\
-is a separator.";
+splits are done. If sep is not specified or is None, any\n\
+whitespace string is a separator.";
 
 static PyObject *
 string_split(PyStringObject *self, PyObject *args)