How to Shorten a String in Python

Text handling is a crucial part of any programming language. In Python, there’s an array of string operations that we can perform. In this tutorial, we shall learn how to shorten a string in Python. What do we mean by shortening a string? This merely means reducing the length of a given string to a specified length.

Step 1: Understand the Principle of String Slicing

Shortening a string in Python can be achieved through the reliable technique known as string slicing. With string slicing, we can cut any part of a string and return it as a new string.

Slicing uses the index numbers of a string, which starts from zero in Python, as the starting and ending points. An important point to note is that the starting index is inclusive, while the ending one is exclusive.

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string = "Hello Python"
short_string = string[0:5]
print(short_string)

Output:

Hello

Step 2: Create a Function to Shorten the String

To make the process reusable, we can create a function, say shorten_string. Our function will accept two parameters, the string to be shortened, and the length to which we want to shorten it.

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def shorten_string(string, length):
   return string[0:length]

When we call this function with a string and a length, it will return the string shortened to the specified length.

Step 3: Use the Function

Now, we can easily use our function by providing it with a string and the length:

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string = "Hello Python"
print(shorten_string(string, 5))

Output:

Hello

Full Code

Below is the full code we have discussed.

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def shorten_string(string, length):
   return string[0:length]
 
string = "Hello Python"
print(shorten_string(string, 5))

Conclusion

Shortening a string in Python is simple, and string slicing provides us with a powerful tool to manipulate strings. By creating a reusable function, we can easily shorten any string to the desired length.

It’s one of the many fascinating features of Python that make it a popular language for data manipulation and analysis. Be sure to check out the official string documentation, as there’s much more you can do with strings than just shortening them.