How to Remove Punctuation from a List in Python

Working with lists is a fundamental aspect of programming in Python. However, lists often have punctuation that can interfere with your code and cause errors.

Whether you’re dealing with user input or pulling data from a web page, you will likely have to deal with unwanted punctuation at some point. This tutorial will guide you on how to remove punctuation from a list in Python.

Step 1: Define Your List

First, let’s create a list that includes some punctuation. We will use this list as an example throughout this tutorial.

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my_list = ["hello,", "world!", "I'm", "learning", "Python."]

Step 2: Import the ‘string’ Module

In Python, the string.punctuation method contains all the punctuation symbols. To use it, we need to import the ‘string’ module.

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import string

Step 3: Removing Punctuation

We will use Python’s list comprehension feature along with the string.punctuation method to remove punctuation from the list.

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my_list = [''.join(c for c in i if c not in string.punctuation) for i in my_list]

Step 4: Print the Cleaned List

Now that we have removed the punctuation, we can print the cleaned list to the console. Your cleaned list should look like this:

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print(my_list)
 
['hello', 'world', 'Im', 'learning', 'Python']

Note: Be aware that this method also removes punctuation from the middle of words. For example, “I’m” is changed to “Im”. If you want to keep punctuation within words, you should use a more sophisticated method, such as a regular expression or the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK).

The Complete Code

Below you can see the complete implementation of the above steps

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import string
 
my_list = ["hello,", "world!", "I'm", "learning", "Python."]
my_list = [''.join(c for c in i if c not in string.punctuation) for i in my_list]
 
print(my_list)

Conclusion

Removing punctuation from a list in Python is an often-encountered requirement. By using the string. Punctuation method and list comprehension, we can achieve this task efficiently and effectively. Remember, the method shown here also removes punctuation from within the words. If you do not want this, consider using a more specialized method. Happy Coding!