How to use text strip() function?

Question

I can strip numerics but not alpha characters:

>>> text
\'132abcd13232111\'

>>> text.strip(\'123\')
\'abcd\'

Why the followi

Answer 1

The reason is simple and stated in the documentation of strip:

str.strip([chars])

Return a copy of the string with the leading and trailing characters removed. 
The chars argument is a string specifying the set of characters to be removed.

'abcd' is neither leading nor trailing in the string '132abcd13232111' so it isn't stripped.