How to delete a character from a string using Python

Question

There is a string, for example. EXAMPLE.

How can I remove the middle character, i.e., M from it? I don\'t need the code. I want to know:

Answer 1

Strings are immutable. But you can convert them to a list, which is mutable, and then convert the list back to a string after you've changed it.

s = "this is a string"

l = list(s)  # convert to list

l[1] = ""    # "delete" letter h (the item actually still exists but is empty)
l[1:2] = []  # really delete letter h (the item is actually removed from the list)
del(l[1])    # another way to delete it

p = l.index("a")  # find position of the letter "a"
del(l[p])         # delete it

s = "".join(l)  # convert back to string

You can also create a new string, as others have shown, by taking everything except the character you want from the existing string.

Answer 2

Use the translate() method:

>>> s = 'EXAMPLE'
>>> s.translate(None, 'M')
'EXAPLE'

Answer 3

Strings are immutable in Python so both your options mean the same thing basically.

Answer 4

To replace a specific position:

s = s[:pos] + s[(pos+1):]

To replace a specific character:

s = s.replace('M','')

Answer 5

Another way is with a function,

Below is a way to remove all vowels from a string, just by calling the function

def disemvowel(s):
    return s.translate(None, "aeiouAEIOU")

Answer 6

def kill_char(string, n): # n = position of which character you want to remove
    begin = string[:n]    # from beginning to n (n not included)
    end = string[n+1:]    # n+1 through end of string
    return begin + end
print kill_char("EXAMPLE", 3)  # "M" removed

I have seen this somewhere here.