A simple yet powerful way to replace a string in Python is by using the Python string replace() method. In one of our earlier tutorial, we had discussed Python Strings at great length. Perhaps you should read this post if you wish to learn strings from depth. In today’s post, we’ll not only explain the Python string replace() method but will understand it from the practical point of view. Since Python is one of the best scripting languages that most easily integrates with Selenium Webdriver for web-based automation, which requires a lot of string handling. There you may need to use string handling for building dynamic XPath, comparing dates and searching for substrings. Hence, it’s inevitable to avoid using the Python string replace() method.
Nowadays Python is also becoming popular for using in the data analytics applications. Here you first need to process the data and then have to represent in graphs. And all such operations require string manipulation using the methods like the Python string replace(). Next, apart from knowing about these methods, you also have to think creatively for using string functions. So, you can use them more efficiently. To evaluate yourself for how logically you can use strings, please try this Python string quiz.
Python String Replace() Methods
1- How to replace a string in Python
Often you’ll get a <string (str object)> so that you could change its contents by replacing a part of texts with another. In Python, everything is an object which is also true for strings. It means that <str> is a string object. And Python’s string module provides a <replace()> method. The <replace()> method has its definition in the string module. There are the following two ways to call it.
1- Use it with the <str> object.
2- Use directly from the string module.
2- Signature of the Python string replace() method
The <string.replace()> method has the following syntax.
str.replace(s, old, new[, replacefreq])
Here is a summary of the parameters passed to the method.
1- <s>: It’s the value of a string to search and replace from.
2- <old>: It’s the value of the old sub-string you like to replace.
3- <new>: It’s the value of the new substring that you want to replace with the old one.
4- <replacefreq>: It represents the no. of times the string will get replaced.
3- Examples of using the Python string replace() method
3.1- Example-1: Using the module name to call the string.replace() method
oldString = 'I love Python 2.0' import string newString = string.replace(oldString, '2.0', '3.0') print(newString) newString = string.replace(oldString, '2.0', '3.0.') print(newString) oldString = 'Are you a tester who tests websites? Be a good tester.' newString = string.replace(oldString, 'test', 'develop', 1) print(newString) newString = string.replace(oldString, 'test', 'develop', 2) print(newString) newString = string.replace(oldString, 'test', 'develop', 3) print(newString)
The above Python code will produce the following output.
I love Python 3.0 I love Python 3.0. Are you a developer who tests websites? Be a good tester. Are you a developer who develops websites? Be a good tester. Are you a developer who develops websites? Be a good developer.
3.2- Example-2: Using the <str> object to call the replace() method
oldString = 'I love Python 2.0'
newString = oldString.replace('2.0', '3.0')
print(newString)
newString = oldString.replace('2.0', '3.0.')
print(newString)
oldString = 'Are you a tester who tests websites? Be a good tester.'
newString = oldString.replace('test', 'develop', 1)
print(newString)
newString = oldString.replace('test', 'develop', 2)
print(newString)
newString = oldString.replace('test', 'develop', 3)
print(newString)And here, it’s the output of the above Python string replace() example.
I love Python 3.0 I love Python 3.0. Are you a developer who tests websites? Be a good tester. Are you a developer who develops websites? Be a good tester. Are you a developer who develops websites? Be a good developer.
From both of the above examples, it’s evident that you can use any of two methods to replace strings in Python. Though, it’s the second method (in example-2) which is more convenient to use.
Final Word – Python String Replace() Methods
Hopefully, the above post would have given you a fair idea of using the Python string replace() method. You can learn more through practice, get the code from the examples and start.
If you want us to cover any other topic in Python, then please do write to us.
All the Best,
TechBeamers
