How to remove a substring in python

Question

I have a string in which date and time change according to the report.

String = "Engine NOrc04/14/20 11:24XX5555-May-2021"

I want to remove "04/14/20 11:24" because it changes every time when I generate report.

output = "Engine NOrcXX5555-May-2021"

You should provide more how you construct the string and internal format of the string? — TaQuangTu
– TaQuangTu, Commented Apr 19, 2020 at 14:25

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

1

Slicing

If the format of the string doesn't change you can slice the string as follows:

string = "Engine NOrc04/14/20 11:24XX5555-May-2021"
new_string = string[:11] + string[25:]
print(new_string)

string = "Engine NOrc04/14/20 11:24XX5555-May-2021 report contains below information..."
new_string = string[:11] + string[25:]
print(new_string)

Output

Engine NOrcXX5555-May-2021
Engine NOrcXX5555-May-2021 report contains below information...

Using regex

If the time appears in different parts of the string, but the format of the time doesn't change, you can use re.sub() to replace the time string:

import re

string = 'Engine NOrc04/14/20 11:24XX5555-May-2021 report contains below information...'
new_string = re.sub('\d\d/\d\d/\d\d \d\d:\d\d', '', string)
print(new_string)

string = 'SOME OTHER RANDOM STRING 04/14/20 11:24 THIS IS A DIFFERENT STRING'
new_string = re.sub('\d\d/\d\d/\d\d \d\d:\d\d', '', string)
print(new_string)

Output:

Engine NOrcXX5555-May-2021 report contains below information...
SOME OTHER RANDOM STRING  THIS IS A DIFFERENT STRING

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Apr 19, 2020 at 14:27

Victor

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13 Comments

Vinod Kumar Over a year ago

actually string length is not fixed, it is getting changed but the part which i want to remove will always start from NOrc and ends with time(time changes with every report)- for example - String = "Report generated by:vikas report name:oldreport report type and generated on:Engine NOrc04/14/20 11:24XX5555-May-2021 report contains below information..." in above scenario i do not know the index of "04/14/20 11:24" please help Thanks

Victor Over a year ago

@VinodKumar updated my answer, instead of counting from the end, just skip 14 chars since that's how long the substring for the time is

ScoJo Over a year ago

@GrandPhuba You've just copied my regex solution into your answer! Counting characters is an extremely brittle way of solving this.

Victor Over a year ago

@ScoJo I would concede that the code is the same and you suggested it first, but do you really think one would blindly copy code as simple as that, let alone provide it as part of an answer without testing it. As for the brittle comment, that is beside the point, unless OP provides more context why it is unfit, the answer works, and is the sole reason why answer tries explain when to use which.

Victor Over a year ago

stackoverflow.com/questions/11475885/python-replace-regex stackoverflow.com/questions/5658369/…

|

ScoJo · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-19 14:39:26Z

0

Use regex to find the date and replace with an empty string.

import re

string = "Engine NOrc04/14/20 11:24XX5555-May-2021"
result = re.sub(r"\d\d/\d\d/\d\d \d\d:\d\d", "", string)
print(result)

output

'Engine NOrcXX5555-May-2021'

answered Apr 19, 2020 at 14:39

ScoJo

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