trying to recall a regex for re.split()

[Skaperen]

like this:

def numunits(s=None):
    if not isinstance(s,str):
        raise TypeError('string expected')
    i = iter(range(len(s)))
    for p in i:
        try:
            v = float(s[:p])
            break
        except:
            continue
    else:
        raise ValueError('no number')
    for p in i:
        try:
            v = float(s[:p])
            continue
        except:
            break
    else:
        raise ValueError('no units')
    if s[p] != ' ':
        p -= 1
    return v,s[p:]
if __name__ == '__main__':
    a = ['144mHz','432 mHz','1.296GHz','2.304 GHz']
    for x in a:
        print(repr(x))
        print(repr(numunits(x)))

Output:
lt2a/forums/1 /home/forums 13> py numunits.py
'144mHz'
(144.0, 'mHz')
'432 mHz'
(432.0, 'mHz')
'1.296GHz'
(1.296, 'GHz')
'2.304 GHz'
(2.304, 'GHz')
lt2a/forums/1 /home/forums 14>