CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonreplacenull-terminated
Melvin
Melvin

Reputation: 449

Python replace '\0' in string with null

I'm currently facing a strange problem. I want to replace the '\0' in strings with 'null' and read through many forums and always saw the same answer:

text_it = "request on port 21 that begins with many '\0' characters, 
preventing the affected router"
text_it.replace('\0', 'null')

or

text_it.replace('\x00', 'null')

When I now print the string, I get the following result:

"request on port 21 that begins with many '\0' characters, preventing the 
affected router"

Nothing happened.

So I used this method and it worked but it seems to be too much effort for such a small change:

text_it = text_it.split('\0')
text_it = text_it[0] + 'null' + text_it[1]

Any idea why the replace function didn't work?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 4768

Answers (2)

ibarrond
ibarrond

Reputation: 7621

In one single line:

text_it = text_it.replace('\0', 'null').replace('\x00', 'null')

Upvotes: 3

Laurent H.
Laurent H.

Reputation: 6526

Strings are immutable, so they can not be modified through the replace() method. But this method returns the expected output, so you can assign this returned value to text_it. Here is the (simple) solution: 

text_it = "request on port 21 that begins with many '\0' characters, preventing the affected router"
text_it = text_it.replace('\0', 'null')

print(text_it)
# request on port 21 that begins with many 'null' characters, preventing the affected router

Upvotes: 0

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