How To Remove 2 Characters From String In Python

In this tutorial, we will learn how to remove two characters from a string in Python. This is a common task in text processing and can be accomplished using several techniques. We will explore methods like string slicing, string replace, and using the str.translate() method, and create a custom function.

Step 1: Using String Slicing

String slicing is an easy and convenient way to remove characters from a string. You can remove characters at specific positions by skipping those index positions and concatenating the remaining parts of the string.

Let’s remove the characters at positions 2 and 5 from the string.

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input_string = "PythonTutorial"
new_string = input_string[:1] + input_string[2+1:4] + input_string[5+1:]
print(new_string)

Output:

PtonTutorial

Step 2: Using String Replace

You can use the str.replace() method to replace the characters you want to remove with an empty string. However, this method will remove all occurrences of the target characters.

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input_string = "PythonTutorial"
new_string = input_string.replace('t', '').replace('r', '')
print(new_string)

Output:

PyhonTuoial

Keep in mind that this method will remove all occurrences of the specified characters, not just those at specific positions.

Step 3: Using str.translate() method

The str.translate() method can be used for translating a string using a translation table. The translation table is created using the str.maketrans() function by specifying the characters to be removed.

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input_string = "PythonTutorial"
trans = str.maketrans('', '', 'tr')
new_string = input_string.translate(trans)
print(new_string)

Output:

PyhonTuoial

This method is efficient if you want to remove multiple characters from the string.

Step 4: Create a custom function

You can create a custom function that accepts the input string, the characters to be removed, their positions, and returns a new string with the characters removed.

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def remove_chars(input_string, indexes):
    new_string = ''
    for i, char in enumerate(input_string):
        if i not in indexes:
            new_string += char
    return new_string
 
input_string = "PythonTutorial"
new_string = remove_chars(input_string, [2, 5])
print(new_string)

Output:

PtonTutorial

This custom function is more flexible and can be easily modified to handle edge cases.

Full Code

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# Method 1: String Slicing
input_string = "PythonTutorial"
new_string = input_string[:1] + input_string[2+1:4] + input_string[5+1:]
print(new_string)
 
# Method 2: String Replace
input_string = "PythonTutorial"
new_string = input_string.replace('t', '').replace('r', '')
print(new_string)
 
# Method 3: str.translate() method
input_string = "PythonTutorial"
trans = str.maketrans('', '', 'tr')
new_string = input_string.translate(trans)
print(new_string)
 
# Method 4: Custom function
def remove_chars(input_string, indexes):
    new_string = ''
    for i, char in enumerate(input_string):
        if i not in indexes:
            new_string += char
    return new_string
 
input_string = "PythonTutorial"
new_string = remove_chars(input_string, [2, 5])
print(new_string)

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned various methods to remove two characters from a string in Python – string slicing, string replace, using the str.translate() method, and a custom function. Each of these methods has its own advantages and can be chosen based on your specific use case and requirements.