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Removing a list of characters in string

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How do I delete multiple characters from a string?

To remove multiple characters from a string we can easily use the function str. replace and pass a parameter multiple characters. The String class (Str) provides a method to replace(old_str, new_str) to replace the sub-strings in a string.

How do I remove all characters from a string in Python?

Python Remove Character from a String – How to Delete Characters from Strings. In Python you can use the replace() and translate() methods to specify which characters you want to remove from a string and return a new modified string result.

How do you remove multiple characters from a list in Python?

To strip multiple characters in Python, use the string strip() method. The string strip() method removes the whitespace from the beginning (leading) and end (trailing) of the string by default. The strip() method also takes an argument, and if you pass that argument as a character, it will remove it.


If you're using python2 and your inputs are strings (not unicodes), the absolutely best method is str.translate:

>>> chars_to_remove = ['.', '!', '?']
>>> subj = 'A.B!C?'
>>> subj.translate(None, ''.join(chars_to_remove))
'ABC'

Otherwise, there are following options to consider:

A. Iterate the subject char by char, omit unwanted characters and join the resulting list:

>>> sc = set(chars_to_remove)
>>> ''.join([c for c in subj if c not in sc])
'ABC'

(Note that the generator version ''.join(c for c ...) will be less efficient).

B. Create a regular expression on the fly and re.sub with an empty string:

>>> import re
>>> rx = '[' + re.escape(''.join(chars_to_remove)) + ']'
>>> re.sub(rx, '', subj)
'ABC'

(re.escape ensures that characters like ^ or ] won't break the regular expression).

C. Use the mapping variant of translate:

>>> chars_to_remove = [u'δ', u'Γ', u'ж']
>>> subj = u'AжBδCΓ'
>>> dd = {ord(c):None for c in chars_to_remove}
>>> subj.translate(dd)
u'ABC'

Full testing code and timings:

#coding=utf8

import re

def remove_chars_iter(subj, chars):
    sc = set(chars)
    return ''.join([c for c in subj if c not in sc])

def remove_chars_re(subj, chars):
    return re.sub('[' + re.escape(''.join(chars)) + ']', '', subj)

def remove_chars_re_unicode(subj, chars):
    return re.sub(u'(?u)[' + re.escape(''.join(chars)) + ']', '', subj)

def remove_chars_translate_bytes(subj, chars):
    return subj.translate(None, ''.join(chars))

def remove_chars_translate_unicode(subj, chars):
    d = {ord(c):None for c in chars}
    return subj.translate(d)

import timeit, sys

def profile(f):
    assert f(subj, chars_to_remove) == test
    t = timeit.timeit(lambda: f(subj, chars_to_remove), number=1000)
    print ('{0:.3f} {1}'.format(t, f.__name__))

print (sys.version)
PYTHON2 = sys.version_info[0] == 2

print ('\n"plain" string:\n')

chars_to_remove = ['.', '!', '?']
subj = 'A.B!C?' * 1000
test = 'ABC' * 1000

profile(remove_chars_iter)
profile(remove_chars_re)

if PYTHON2:
    profile(remove_chars_translate_bytes)
else:
    profile(remove_chars_translate_unicode)

print ('\nunicode string:\n')

if PYTHON2:
    chars_to_remove = [u'δ', u'Γ', u'ж']
    subj = u'AжBδCΓ'
else:
    chars_to_remove = ['δ', 'Γ', 'ж']
    subj = 'AжBδCΓ'

subj = subj * 1000
test = 'ABC' * 1000

profile(remove_chars_iter)

if PYTHON2:
    profile(remove_chars_re_unicode)
else:
    profile(remove_chars_re)

profile(remove_chars_translate_unicode)

Results:

2.7.5 (default, Mar  9 2014, 22:15:05) 
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 5.0 (clang-500.0.68)]

"plain" string:

0.637 remove_chars_iter
0.649 remove_chars_re
0.010 remove_chars_translate_bytes

unicode string:

0.866 remove_chars_iter
0.680 remove_chars_re_unicode
1.373 remove_chars_translate_unicode

---

3.4.2 (v3.4.2:ab2c023a9432, Oct  5 2014, 20:42:22) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)]

"plain" string:

0.512 remove_chars_iter
0.574 remove_chars_re
0.765 remove_chars_translate_unicode

unicode string:

0.817 remove_chars_iter
0.686 remove_chars_re
0.876 remove_chars_translate_unicode

(As a side note, the figure for remove_chars_translate_bytes might give us a clue why the industry was reluctant to adopt Unicode for such a long time).


You can use str.translate():

s.translate(None, ",!.;")

Example:

>>> s = "asjo,fdjk;djaso,oio!kod.kjods;dkps"
>>> s.translate(None, ",!.;")
'asjofdjkdjasooiokodkjodsdkps'

You can use the translate method.

s.translate(None, '!.;,')

If you are using python3 and looking for the translate solution - the function was changed and now takes 1 parameter instead of 2.

That parameter is a table (can be dictionary) where each key is the Unicode ordinal (int) of the character to find and the value is the replacement (can be either a Unicode ordinal or a string to map the key to).

Here is a usage example:

>>> list = [',', '!', '.', ';']
>>> s = "This is, my! str,ing."
>>> s.translate({ord(x): '' for x in list})
'This is my string'

''.join(c for c in myString if not c in badTokens)

Why not a simple loop?

for i in replace_list:
    string = string.replace(i, '')

Also, avoid naming lists 'list'. It overrides the built-in function list.