You can come quite close to what you want without splitting the string
at all. It sounds like you are asking the user to build up a string,
and you want to keep checking through your list to find any items that
begin with the string built up by the user. Try something like this:
mylist = ['1p2m_3.3-1.8v_sal_ms','1p2m_3.3-1.8_sal_log']
sofar = ""
loop = True
while loop:
selections = [ x[len(sofar):x.index("_", len(sofar) + 1)]
for x in mylist if x.startswith(sofar) ]
loop = len(selections) > 1
if loop:
print selections
sofar += raw_input("Pick one of those: ")
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