How to use Python strip() function on string

• strip() is a function that is present in both Python 2 and Python 3 which returns a copy of the string after removing the starting and ending characters which are passed in the strip() function.


• strip() only accepts one argument(or zero argument that is used to strip whitespaces).


• It only strip string data types, Python will throw TypeError while applying strip() on other data types like int, list, tuple etc.

Syntax:

str.strip('characters')

'characters' is optional

Example:

str = '***Welcome to getechready***'
new_str = str.strip('*')
print(new_str)

Note: You don't have to write the same character multiple times, single time will work. Python keeps on removing the character till the time it finds the same character. It repeats the process on both side.

Output:

>>>Welcome to getechready

The passed argument does not necessarily should be present on both side. It can be present on either side Python will take care of it.

str = 'Welcome to getechready'
new_str = str.strip('Wel') #the argument is case senstitve
print(new_str)

Output:

>>>come to getechready

Trim leading and trailing spaces :

Mostly strip() method is used for trimming starting and ending spaces from string.

str = '    Welcome to getechready  '   #need not be same number of spaces
new_str = str.strip()
print(new_str)

Output:

>>>Welcome to getechready

The order of the characters passed in the strip() method does not matter, it removes all provided characters till they are contiguous.

str = 'racecar'
new_str = str.strip('rca')
print(new_str)

Output:

>>>e

With order the number of the characters passed in the strip() method also does not matter.

str = 'mississippi'
new_str = str.strip('ism')
print(new_str)

Output:

>>>pp

Note: 'ism' characters matched from the starting i.e. 'mississi' and only 'i' from 'ism' matched from the end.

If we pass list, strip() will throw an exception

str = 'getechready'
new_str = str.strip(['get'])

Output:

>>>TypeError: strip arg must be None or str

Also read: rstrip() method and lstrip() method