Convert Sentence to Word Array | Dataford Interview Questions

Your question is Convert Sentence to Word Array. Start with the requirements on the right.

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Problem

A Credit Acceptance application receives a sentence that must be processed as an ordered array of words. Write a function that converts the sentence into a list by splitting on one or more whitespace characters.

Preserve each word's original characters and order. Do not remove or alter punctuation attached to a word. For an empty or whitespace-only sentence, return an empty list.

Formal Specification

Implement sentence_to_words(sentence).

Input: sentence, a string containing zero or more characters.
Output: A list of strings, where each element is one word separated by whitespace.
Whitespace includes spaces, tabs, and newline characters.
Consecutive whitespace characters do not create empty words.

Constraints

0 <= len(sentence) <= 10^5
Whitespace can include spaces, tabs, and newline characters
Punctuation remains part of the word containing it

Function Signature

def sentence_to_words(sentence):