title: Breaking 1 String into 2 Strings based on special characters using python
body: <p>I am working with python and I am new to it. I am looking for a way to take a string and split it into two smaller strings. An example of the string is below</p>
  
  <pre><code>wholeString = '102..109'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And what I am trying to get is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>a = '102'
  b = '109'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The information will always be separated by two periods like shown above, but the number of characters before and after can range anywhere from 1 - 10 characters in length. I am writing a loop that counts characters before and after the periods and then makes a slice based on those counts, but I was wondering if there was a more elegant way that someone knew about.
  Thanks!</p>