Semantic of std::str::CharSplitsN and regex::RegexSplitsN don't match.

[Kimundi]

Both implement an Iterator over slices of a string that is being split at a pattern, but
std::str::CharSplitsN splits at most N times, yielding N + 1 strings; while regex::RegexSplitsN splits at most N - 1 times, yielding N strings.

This is inconsistent and confusing, and one of them should be changed to have the semantic of the other, however it is unclear which is the better one.

[o11c]

After being confused by my own memories, I thought about why python does the N+1 way:

It is because it's returning N strings split exactly, and +1 for "the rest".

IMO the API should be such that "the rest" does not appear similar to the exact splits.

[kwantam]

perl splits N - 1 times, yielding N strings, so there's precedent for both.

(Of course, that's also because LIMIT=0 has a special meaning. Of course it does, it's perl. Negative limit has a special meaning, too!)

ETA: ruby's split behavior is identical to perl's.

Consistency matters more than the particular choice, in my opinion.

[o11c]

What I'm saying is that if we were eager about allocating, the obvious API would be:

fn splitn<'a>(s: &'a str, n: uint) -> (Vec<&'a str>, &'a str)

where the Vec has size n, and the rest is the +1. Some small changes are needed to avoid the Vec of course.

[Kimundi]

Changing the existing APIs from the current simple and efficient Iterator<&str> based ones is not really the point of this issue. (Even if its somewhat related)

[kwantam]

Note also that if splitn() were to return a vec, it'd have to be moved out of the StrSlice trait, since that lives in core, and is thus not allowed to do any allocating.

Personally I think we should provide every possible bit of functionality without allocating.

[o11c]

Sorry, I'm not saying it should return a vec, just that treating rest as a completely separate bit would be beneficial.

It can be implemented as a two-pass thing, or possibly as some sort of method that can be called once you've exhausted the head portion.

[steveklabnik]

/cc @aturon

[aturon]

@Kimundi I believe this should fall out of your more general API changes? Are we nearing a point where we can move forward on that?

[alexcrichton]

regexes have now moved externally, so I'm going to close this