regex - python - How to know what re used to split a string? -

the code below lets user input 2 names of movies separated either &, | or ^:

query = raw_input("enter query:") movie_f = re.split('&|\^|\|', query)[0].strip() movie_s = re.split('&|\^|\|', query)[1].strip() 

i want know re has used separate string (&, | or ^). how can that?

if group regex return items split every second item.

>>> query '&foo^bar' >>> re.split(r'(&|\^|)', query) ['', '&', 'foo', '^', 'bar']