Remove characters from string using replace()

Question

feeling stupid with this one :/

I know I'm using the method wrong in some way, but with only https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str.replace to work with I just can't see why I can't do what I'm trying to achieve here (which I hope is obvious enough?)

import string

word2 = 'abc?ef,hi.!l@'

for x in string.punctuation:
    if x in word2:
        word2.replace(x,'')

print (word2)

I've tried a few debugs & print statements so I know it's iterating through string.substring OK, and I know it's going through word2 and recognising when each x is present, but why isn't replace() actually doing anything here?

Thanks

2Cubed · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-13 20:38:03Z

1

You can use str.join and comprehension to do this in one straightforward line.

import string

word2 = "abc?ef,hi.!1@"
word2 = ''.join(c for c in word2 if c not in punctuation)

answered Jun 13, 2016 at 20:38

2Cubed

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Comments

Seek Addo · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-13 20:38:43Z

0

try this:

import string

word2 = "abc?ef,hi.!l@"

for x in string.punctuation:
    if x in word2:      //works with or without
        word2 = word2.replace(x,"")// save the after replace is done.
print(word2)

output:

abcefhil

edited Jun 13, 2016 at 20:38

answered Jun 13, 2016 at 20:30

Seek Addo

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4 Comments

juanpa.arrivillaga Over a year ago

I might add that you don't really need the conditional if x is in word2

Seek Addo Over a year ago

@juanpa.arrivillaga yea true

Phlebas_The_Seabass Over a year ago

Thanks. It was actually the fact you have to assign to a variable what replace() produces that I was missing/didn't understand. @juanpa.arrivillaga Wow, didn't realise that either but seems obvious now. Thanks.

Seek Addo Over a year ago

@Phlebas_The_Seabass you welcome, you can accept the accept the answer if it was helpful

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