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Python supports object-oriented programming and has a concise, readable, and easy-to-learn syntax. It is no wonder that it is one of the most popular programming languages. An integral part of Python are its built-in functions.
We've written a series of articles to help you learn and brush up on the most useful Python functions. In this article, we’ll learn about Python's strip() function and how to use it.
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In this article, we’ll cover:
Python’s strip() function is a built-in function that removes specific leading and trailing characters from the start and end of the original string. These characters to remove are given as an argument to strip() for removal.
If we provide no string as an argument, then the strip() function removes leading and trailing whitespaces by default. If no leading or trailing strings match the argument, the new string returned is the same as the original string.
Parameter:
characters (optional): Set of characters to remove from the start and end of the original string.
Return Value:
Returns a new string that’s a copy of the original string with required leading and trailing characters removed.
Here, we take a look at how you can use the Python function strip() the next time you need it:
Here’s a basic example to understand the working of the strip() function in Python:
From the start:
From the end:
Note that the search from the start or end stops as soon as there's a mismatch in the original string.
Found this article helpful? You can learn about more Python functions on the learn page.
Q1. What is the use of the function strip() in Python?
The strip() method removes characters from both the left and right ends based on the optional argument we can pass to strip(). The optional argument is a string specifying the set of characters to remove if present at the start or the end.
Q2. How do you strip whitespace in a line in Python?
In Python, we can use some string functions like strip() to remove extra spaces from both ends, lstrip() to remove from only the left end, and rstrip() to remove from the right end only. Since we cannot modify strings in place, all these three functions return new strings with the necessary leading and trailing characters removed.
Q3. How would you strip whitespaces in Python?
Python’s string function called strip() removes both leading and trailing whitespaces. To remove only leading or trailing spaces, we can use lstrip() for leading spaces and rstrip() function for trailing spaces.
Q4. Does strip() remove newline Python?
Python’s strip() function can remove \n, a newline character, from a string. The strip() function can remove both trailing and leading newline characters from the original string.
Q5. What is the difference between Python’s strip() and split() functions with respect to whitespaces?
There's no practical difference as split() by default ignores trailing whitespace at the end of the input. If someone calls strip() first and then uses split(), they either don’t know this behavior of split(), or they’re just doing it for clarity.
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