CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.xstringreplacestr-replace
WoJ
WoJ

Reputation: 29987

How to replace a string with a backspace?

str.replace() allows to replace a substring in a string with something else.

I have the problem of repeated whitespaces after the replacement:

>>> 'word word to be removed word'.replace('to be removed', '')
'word word  word'

Note the two whitespaces after the second word.

Is there a way to replace a substring with a backspace that would remove one space? (I know that the string will be made of words separated by spaces)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1242

Answers (2)

WoJ
WoJ

Reputation: 29987

One solution is to split(), and then join() the result. This also removes pre-and post-whitspaces

>>> ' '.join('word word to be removed word'.replace('to be removed', '').split())
'word word word'

Upvotes: 2

Rivers
Rivers

Reputation: 1923

You could just add this whitespace at the end of the substring to be removed:

phrase = 'word word to be removed word'

# We add the whitespace at the end
to_remove = 'to be removed ' # instead of 'to be removed'

# Remove a specific substring
phrase = phrase.replace(to_remove, '')

If you have consecutive whitespaces and want to replace them by only one, you can use a regex:

import re

# Replace all consecutive whitespaces by one whitespace
phrase = re.sub(r" +", " ", phrase)

Upvotes: 1

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