`IPython.utils.text:SList.fields`

Signature

def fields ( self , * fields : List[str] ) → List[List[str]]

Collect whitespace-separated fields from string list

Allows quick awk-like usage of string lists.

Example data (in var a, created by 'a = !ls -l')

-rwxrwxrwx  1 ville None      18 Dec 14  2006 ChangeLog
drwxrwxrwx+ 6 ville None       0 Oct 24 18:05 IPython

a.fields(0) is ['-rwxrwxrwx', 'drwxrwxrwx+']
a.fields(1,0) is ['1 -rwxrwxrwx', '6 drwxrwxrwx+'] (note the joining by space).
a.fields(-1) is ['ChangeLog', 'IPython']

IndexErrors are ignored.

Without args, fields() just split()'s the strings.