Make a |List| out of {string}. When {pattern} is omitted or empty each white-separated sequence of characters becomes an item. Otherwise the string is split where {pattern} matches, removing the matched characters. 'ignorecase' is not used here, add \c to ignore case. |/\c| When the first or last item is empty it is omitted, unless the {keepempty} argument is given and it's non-zero. Other empty items are kept when {pattern} matches at least one character or when {keepempty} is non-zero. Example: :let words = split(getline('.'), '\W+') To split a string in individual characters: :for c in split(mystring, '\zs') If you want to keep the separator you can also use '\zs' at the end of the pattern: :echo split('abc:def:ghi', ':\zs') ['abc:', 'def:', 'ghi'] ~ Splitting a table where the first element can be empty: :let items = split(line, ':', 1) The opposite function is |join()|. Can also be used as a |method|: GetString()->split()