python - How to get the first word in the string

Question

text is :

WYATT    - Ranked # 855 with    0.006   %
XAVIER   - Ranked # 587 with    0.013   %
YONG     - Ranked # 921 with    0.006   %
YOUNG    - Ranked # 807 with    0.007   %

I want to get only

WYATT
XAVIER
YONG
YOUNG

I tried :

(.*)?[ ]

But it gives me the :

WYATT    - Ranked

Answer 1

Regex is unnecessary for this. Just use some_string.split(' ', 1)[0] or some_string.partition(' ')[0].