Strings & text
Format, split, join, parse, and clean text — everyday Python string patterns.
How to Normalize Text in Python
This code defines a function that trims, lowercases, and collapses extra whitespace in a string, returning normalized text.
def normalize_text(text: str) -> str:
normalized = " ".join(text.lower().strip().split())
return normalized
if __name__ == "__main__":
raw = " Hello, WORLD! This is a test. "
print(normalize_text(raw))How to Pad a String with Zeros in Python
Pad a string to a fixed width by left-filling it with zeros using the built-in str.zfill method.
def pad_zeros(s, width):
return s.zfill(width)
if __name__ == "__main__":
print(repr(pad_zeros("42", 6)))
print(repr(pad_zeros("-7", 5)))
print(repr(pad_zeros("hello", 10)))
print(repr(pad_zeros("123", 3)))How to Parse and Clean Text in Python
This code defines three helper functions to parse text into lowercase words, count unique word frequencies, and clean text by removing punctuation and extra whitespace.
def extract_words(text: str) -> list[str]:
"""Return a list of lowercase words from the given text."""
return [word.lower() for word in text.split() if word.isalpha()]
def count_unique_words(text: str) -> dict[str, int]:
"""Return a dictionary with unique words and their frequencies."""
words = extra…How to Partition a String on the First Delimiter in Python
Split a string into a tuple of (before, delimiter, after) at the first occurrence of a given delimiter, using a custom function or the built-in str.partition.
def partition_string(s, delimiter):
"""Split string into (before, delimiter, after) on the first occurrence."""
for i, ch in enumerate(s):
if ch == delimiter:
return s[:i], ch, s[i+1:]
return s, "", ""
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Single-character delimiter
s1 = "hello,world,h…How to Process Lines of Text in Python
Strip whitespace, split a multi-line string, count words per line, and print structured summaries using basic string methods and loops.
text = """ Python is great!
Coding is fun.
Python skills help you grow. """
lines = text.strip().splitlines()
line_count = len(lines)
processed = []
for line in lines:
stripped = line.strip()
word_count = len(stripped.split())
processed.append({
"original": line,
"stripped": stripp…How to Process Text in Python
This code processes multiline text by splitting lines, stripping whitespace, counting words and characters, and converting to lowercase.
def process_text(text):
lines = text.split("\n")
clean_lines = []
for line in lines:
stripped = line.strip()
if stripped:
tokens = stripped.split()
title_case = stripped.lower()
clean_lines.append({
"raw": stripped,
"word_c…How to Process Text in Python: Normalize Whitespace and Count Words
A beginner-friendly function that normalizes whitespace in a string and counts total and unique words using Python's standard library.
def process_text(text):
"""Basic text processing: normalize whitespace and count words."""
normalized = " ".join(text.split())
word_count = len(normalized.split())
char_count = len(normalized)
# Count unique words
unique_words = set(normalized.lower().split())
unique_count = len(unique…How to Remove Duplicate Adjacent Spaces in Python
This Python function collapses any sequence of two or more adjacent spaces into a single space, preserving all other characters.
def remove_duplicate_adjacent_spaces(text):
"""Replace sequences of 2+ spaces with a single space."""
result = []
prev_was_space = False
for char in text:
if char == " ":
if not prev_was_space:
result.append(char)
prev_was_space = True
else:
…How to Remove HTML Tags in Python with Regex
Strips all HTML tags from a string using a regular expression and cleans extra whitespace.
import re
def remove_html_tags(text: str) -> str:
"""Remove all HTML tags from the given text using regex."""
# Remove opening and closing tags
clean = re.sub(r'<[^>]+>', '', text)
# Remove any extra whitespace left behind
clean = re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', clean).strip()
return clean
if __name__ ==…How to Replace Multiple Spaces with a Single Space in Python
This snippet uses the `re` module to collapse runs of consecutive spaces in a string into a single space, cleaning up whitespace.
import re
def collapse_spaces(text):
"""Replace multiple consecutive spaces with a single space."""
return re.sub(r' +', ' ', text)
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = "This has multiple spaces between words."
result = collapse_spaces(sample)
print(f"Original: '{sample}'")
print(f"Co…How to Round Numbers with f-strings in Python
Round numbers directly inside f-string expressions using the built-in round() function for clean, readable output formatting.
def main():
# Values to format with expression-based rounding
price = 19.995
tax_rate = 0.0825
distance = 1234.56789
# Round inside the f-string expression using round()
print(f"Price rounded to cents: ${round(price, 2)}")
# Combine rounding with arithmetic inside the expression
total…How to Slugify a String in Python
Convert any text into a URL-friendly slug using the standard library's unicodedata and re modules.
import re
import unicodedata
def slugify(text):
text = unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', text)
text = text.encode('ascii', 'ignore').decode('ascii')
text = re.sub(r'[^\w\s-]', '', text).strip().lower()
text = re.sub(r'[-\s]+', '-', text)
return text
if __name__ == "__main__":
title = "Hello, Worl…How to Sort Text Alphabetically in Python
Sort words or lines alphabetically with case-insensitive ordering while preserving original casing.
def sort_words(text):
"""Sort words alphabetically (case-insensitive), preserving case."""
words = text.split()
return sorted(words, key=str.lower)
def sort_lines(text):
"""Sort lines alphabetically (case-insensitive), preserving case."""
lines = [line for line in text.splitlines() if line.strip(…How to Sort Text in Python with a Simple Helper Function
A compact helper function that sorts a list of strings or splits a string into words and sorts them alphabetically, with optional reverse ordering.
def sort_text(data, reverse=False):
"""
Sort a list of strings (or a single string split into words) alphabetically.
"""
if isinstance(data, str):
words = data.split()
else:
words = [str(item) for item in data]
return sorted(words, reverse=reverse)
if __name__ == "__main__":
…How to Split Lines and Strip Blank Lines in Python
Split a multiline string into non-empty lines and strip surrounding whitespace using a list comprehension.
import sys
def split_and_strip(text):
"""Split text into non-blank lines, stripping whitespace."""
return [line.strip() for line in text.splitlines() if line.strip()]
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample_text = """ First line
Second line
Third line """
result = split_and_strip(…How to Split Strings in Python (Beginner-Friendly)
Split Python strings by a delimiter into lists, plus a cleanup variant that strips whitespace and filters empty parts.
def split_text(text, delimiter=" "):
"""Split a string by a delimiter and return a list of parts."""
return text.split(delimiter)
def split_text_with_cleanup(text, delimiter=" "):
"""Split a string, stripping whitespace and filtering empty parts."""
parts = text.split(delimiter)
cleaned = [part.s…How to Split a String by Comma in Python
Splits a comma-separated string into a list of trimmed items using Python's built-in split and a list comprehension.
def split_csv(line):
return [item.strip() for item in line.split(",")]
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = "apple, banana, cherry, date"
result = split_csv(sample)
print(result)
print(f"Number of items: {len(result)}")How to Strip Whitespace in Python
This code demonstrates how to remove leading and trailing whitespace from a string using the built-in strip() method.
def strip_whitespace(text: str) -> str:
return text.strip()
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = " Hello, world! "
result = strip_whitespace(sample)
print(f"Original: '{sample}'")
print(f"Stripped: '{result}'")How to Summarize Text Statistics in Python
This function returns basic statistics about a string, including character, word, and sentence counts, plus case and digit counts.
def summarize_text(text):
"""Return basic statistics about a string."""
words = text.split()
return {
"characters": len(text),
"words": len(words),
"sentences": text.count(".") + text.count("!") + text.count("?"),
"uppercase": sum(c.isupper() for c in text),
"lowerca…How to Swap Case of Every Character in Python
Swap uppercase to lowercase and lowercase to uppercase for every character in a string using Python's built-in swapcase() method.
def swap_case(text):
"""
Swap uppercase to lowercase and lowercase to uppercase
for every character in the given string.
"""
return text.swapcase()
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = "Hello World! Python3.9"
result = swap_case(sample)
print(f"Input: {sample}")
print(f"Output: {r…How to Transform Text in Python with a Helper Function
Build a simple Python helper to strip extra whitespace and convert text to upper, lower, or title case.
def transform_text(text, upper=False, lower=False, strip_whitespace=False, title_case=False):
"""Apply common string transformations for beginners."""
result = text
if strip_whitespace:
result = " ".join(result.split())
if upper and lower:
raise ValueError("Cannot apply both upper and…How to Translate Characters in a String with str.maketrans in Python
Build and apply character translation tables with str.maketrans and str.translate to replace, delete, or remap letters in a Python string.
def translate_demo():
# Build a translation table: a→1, e→2, i→3, o→4, u→5
table = str.maketrans("aeiou", "12345")
text = "Hello, Python world! Keep coding, friend."
translated = text.translate(table)
print(f"Original: {text}")
print(f"Translated: {translated}")
# Example wit…How to Truncate a String with Ellipsis in Python
A function that shortens text to a maximum length and appends an ellipsis when truncation occurs, handling edge cases.
def truncate_with_ellipsis(text: str, max_length: int) -> str:
"""Truncate text to max_length, appending ellipsis if truncated."""
if len(text) <= max_length:
return text
if max_length <= 3:
return text[:max_length]
return text[: max_length - 3] + "..."
if __name__ == "__main__":
t…How to Unescape HTML Entities in Python
Convert HTML entities like & and < back to their literal characters using the standard library html module.
import html
def unescape_html_entities(text: str) -> str:
"""Convert HTML entities like & to their character equivalents."""
return html.unescape(text)
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = "Tom & Jerry <cartoon> "classic" 'fun' © 2024"
result = unescape_html_enti…Browse by section
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Strings & text — Python code examples
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