title: how to split at ALL special characters with re.split()
body: <p>I am trying to split at any special character using <code>re.split()</code> from the <code>import re</code> package. This is what I have done so far, but doesn't really seem to work out yet. Any ideas?</p>
  
  <pre><code>word = [b for b in re.split(r'\`\-\=\~\!\@\#\$\%\^\&amp;\*\(\)\_\+\[\]\{\}\;\'\\\:\"\|\&lt;\,\.\/\&gt;\&lt;\&gt;\?', a)]
  </code></pre>