Strings & text
Format, split, join, parse, and clean text — everyday Python string patterns.
How to Escape HTML in Python
This code demonstrates how to use Python's `html.escape` function to safely encode user input for display in HTML, preventing XSS attacks.
import html
def escape_user_input(user_input: str) -> str:
"""Escape HTML-sensitive characters for safe display."""
return html.escape(user_input)
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample_user_input = '<script>alert("XSS")</script> & \'quotes\''
safe_output = escape_user_input(sample_user_input)
print("…How to Format Text in Python (Beginner's Guide)
This beginner-friendly Python script demonstrates text formatting basics: stripping whitespace, converting to title case, replacing substrings, splitting into words, and generating a snippet.
text = " hello world, welcome to python skillset! "
cleaned = text.strip()
title_cased = cleaned.title()
replaced = title_cased.replace("Python", "PYTHON")
words = replaced.split()
word_count = len(words)
first_three = " ".join(words[:3])
snippet = first_three + "..."
print("Original:", repr(text))
print("Stripped:"…How to Group Data by Category in Python
Group a list of (category, value) tuples into a dictionary of lists using the setdefault method.
def group_by_category(data):
"""Group list of (category, value) tuples into dictionaries of lists."""
groups = {}
for category, value in data:
groups.setdefault(category, []).append(value)
return groups
if __name__ == "__main__":
items = [
("fruit", "apple"),
("veg", "carro…How to Highlight Search Terms in Python Text
Highlights all case-insensitive occurrences of a search term in a string by wrapping them in markers.
def highlight_search_term(text: str, term: str) -> str:
"""Highlight all occurrences of term in text using terminal-style markers."""
if not term:
return text
term_lower = term.lower()
result = []
i = 0
while i < len(text):
# Check if the term starts at position i (case-insens…How to Join Multiline Text with a Semicolon Separator in Python
This code joins non-empty lines of multiline text into a single string separated by semicolons, stripping leading and trailing whitespace from each line.
def join_multiline_text_with_semicolon(text):
"""Join lines of multiline text with a semicolon separator."""
lines = [line.strip() for line in text.splitlines() if line.strip()]
return "; ".join(lines)
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample_text = """First line
Second line
Third line"""
result = join_…How to Mask Credit Card Middle Digits in Python
Mask the middle digits of credit card numbers in a string, keeping only the first 8 and last 4 digits, using regular expressions.
import re
def mask_credit_card(text: str) -> str:
pattern = re.compile(r'(\d{4}[-\s]?)(\d{4}[-\s]?)(\d{4}[-\s]?)(\d{4})')
return pattern.sub(lambda m: m.group(1) + m.group(2) + '****' + m.group(4), text)
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = "Card: 1234-5678-9012-3456 and 1111 2222 3333 4444"
print(mas…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 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 wrap long text to a specified width in Python
Uses Python's textwrap.fill to wrap a long string to a specified width at word boundaries, preserving readability in console output or logs.
import textwrap
text = """This is a long piece of text that definitely exceeds the width limit
if we try to print it on a single line without any wrapping applied."""
wrapped = textwrap.fill(text, width=40)
print(wrapped)Python: Replace Spaces with Hyphens for Slug
Transform a string by stripping surrounding whitespace and replacing each space with a hyphen to create a simple slug.
def slugify(text):
return text.strip().replace(" ", "-")
if __name__ == "__main__":
title = "Hello World Python Example"
result = slugify(title)
print(result)Remove Substring Occurrences Case-Insensitively in Python
This code removes every case-insensitive occurrence of a given substring from a text string using a simple looping approach.
def remove_occurrences_ci(text: str, substring: str) -> str:
"""Remove all case-insensitive occurrences of substring from text."""
if not substring:
return text
result = []
i = 0
lower_text = text.lower()
lower_sub = substring.lower()
sub_len = len(substring)
while i <…Reverse Words in a Sentence While Keeping Punctuation in Python
Reverses the order of words in a sentence while leaving punctuation and spaces in their original positions using Python's re module.
def reverse_words_preserving_punctuation(sentence: str) -> str:
import re
# Split into words and punctuation tokens
tokens = re.findall(r'\w+|[^\w\s]|\s+', sentence)
words = [t for t in tokens if re.fullmatch(r'\w+', t)]
words.reverse()
result_parts = []
word_index = 0
for token in toke…Browse by section
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Strings & text — Python code examples
What you will find here
This page collects strings & text snippets — short, copy-ready Python you can paste into our free online IDE and run without installing anything. Each sample includes a plain-English explanation and the full source code.
Samples vs tutorials and challenges
Samples are quick reference — one concept per page. For step-by-step teaching, use our Python tutorials. To test yourself, try quizzes or coding challenges. Clean up style with the Python formatter.