def qw(words,flat=0,sep=None,maxsplit=-1):

    if isinstance(words, str):
        return [word.strip() for word in words.split(sep,maxsplit)
                if word and not word.isspace() ]
    if flat:
        return flatten(list(map(qw,words,[1]*len(words))))
    return list(map(qw,words))
Similar to Perl's qw() operator, but with some more options.
dataset/ETHPy150Open ipython/ipython-py3k/IPython/utils/text.py/qw