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Seems odd to me that with all us speed conscious nerds here on SO no one has presented a version that uses a compile time generated look up table for the delimiter. Using a look up table and iterators should beat std::regex in efficiency, if you don't need to beat regex, just use it, its standard as of C++11 and super compact.

Simple yet flexable regex should do exactly what the OP expects:

std::vector<std::string> split(std::string::const_iterator it, std::string::const_iterator end, std::regex e = std::regex{"\\w+"}){
    std::smatch m{};
    std::vector<std::string> ret{};
    while (std::regex_search (it,end,m,e)) {
        ret.emplace_back(m.str());              
        std::advance(it, m.position() + m.length()); //next start position = match position + match length
    }
    return ret;
}
std::vector<std::string> split(const std::string &s, std::regex e = std::regex{"\\w+"}){  //comfort version calls flexible version
    return split(s.cbegin(), s.cend(), e);
}
int main ()
{
    std::string str {"Some people, excluding those present, have been compile time constants - since puberty."};
    auto v = split(str);
    for(const auto&s:v){
        std::cout << s << std::endl;
    }
    std::cout << "crazy:" << std::endl;
    v = split(str, std::regex{"[^e]+"});  //using e as delim shows flexibility
    for(const auto&s:v){
        std::cout << s << std::endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

If we need speed and accept the constraint that all chars must be 8 bits we can make a look up table at compile time using metaprogramming:

Seems odd to me that with all us speed conscious nerds here on SO no one has presented a version that uses a compile time generated look up table for the delimiter (example implementation further down). Using a look up table and iterators should beat std::regex in efficiency, if you don't need to beat regex, just use it, its standard as of C++11 and super flexible.

Some have suggested regex already but for the noobs here is a packaged example that should do exactly what the OP expects:

std::vector<std::string> split(std::string::const_iterator it, std::string::const_iterator end, std::regex e = std::regex{"\\w+"}){
    std::smatch m{};
    std::vector<std::string> ret{};
    while (std::regex_search (it,end,m,e)) {
        ret.emplace_back(m.str());              
        std::advance(it, m.position() + m.length()); //next start position = match position + match length
    }
    return ret;
}
std::vector<std::string> split(const std::string &s, std::regex e = std::regex{"\\w+"}){  //comfort version calls flexible version
    return split(s.cbegin(), s.cend(), std::move(e));
}
int main ()
{
    std::string str {"Some people, excluding those present, have been compile time constants - since puberty."};
    auto v = split(str);
    for(const auto&s:v){
        std::cout << s << std::endl;
    }
    std::cout << "crazy version:" << std::endl;
    v = split(str, std::regex{"[^e]+"});  //using e as delim shows flexibility
    for(const auto&s:v){
        std::cout << s << std::endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

If we need to be faster and accept the constraint that all chars must be 8 bits we can make a look up table at compile time using metaprogramming:

If we need speed and accept the constraint that all chars must be 8 bits we can make a look up table at compile time using metaprogramming:

Simple yet flexable regex should do exactly what the OP expects:

std::vector<std::string> split(std::string::const_iterator it, std::string::const_iterator end, std::regex e = std::regex{"\\w+"}){
    std::smatch m{};
    std::vector<std::string> ret{};
    while (std::regex_search (it,end,m,e)) {
        ret.emplace_back(m.str());              
        std::advance(it, m.position() + m.length()); //next start position = match position + match length
    }
    return ret;
}
std::vector<std::string> split(const std::string &s, std::regex e = std::regex{"\\w+"}){  //comfort version calls flexible version
    return split(s.cbegin(), s.cend(), e);
}
int main ()
{
    std::string str {"Some people, excluding those present, have been compile time constants - since puberty."};
    auto v = split(str);
    for(const auto&s:v){
        std::cout << s << std::endl;
    }
    std::cout << "crazy:" << std::endl;
    v = split(str, std::regex{"[^e]+"});  //using e as delim shows flexibility
    for(const auto&s:v){
        std::cout << s << std::endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

If we need speed and accept the constraint that all chars must be 8 bits we can make a look up table at compile time using metaprogramming:

template<typename T_It>
std::pair<T_It,T_It> getNextToken(T_It begin,T_It end){
    while(Table::isDelim(*begin) && begin != end){begin++;};
    auto second = begin;
    while(!Table::isDelim(*second) && second != end){second++;};
    return std::make_pair(begin,second);
}

template<typename T_It>
std::pair<T_It,T_It> getNextToken(T_It begin,T_It end){
    begin = std::find_if(begin,end,std::not1(Table{})); //find first non delim or end
    auto second = std::find_if(begin,end,Table{});      //find first delim or end
    return std::make_pair(begin,second);
}