Parse simple tokens from a string such that it can be recreated.

shparse.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

#
# Parse simple tokens from a string such that it can be recreated.
#

__author__ = 'Sarah Mount <s.mount@wlv.ac.uk>'
__date__ = '12 July 2012'

ws = [' ', '\n', '\t']

def parse(original):
    tokens = []
    tojoin = []
    char = 0
    while char < len(original):
        sep_ = ''
        while original[char] in ws and char < len(original):
            sep_ += original[char]
            char += 1
        tojoin.append(sep_)
        char_ = ''
        while char < len(original) and (not original[char] in ws):
            char_ += original[char]
            char += 1
        tokens.append(char_)
        tojoin.append(char_)
    return tokens, tojoin


if __name__ == '__main__':
    test = "a      b c\td\n\n\ne"
    print test
    toks, s = parse(test)
    print ''.join(s)
    if test ==  ''.join(s):
        print 'PASSED'