Python String strip() Method - Learn By Example

Strips leading and trailing characters

Usage

The strip() method removes whitespace from the beginning (leading) and end (trailing) of the string by default.

By adding chars parameter, you can also specify the characters you want to strip.

string.strip(chars)

Python string strip() method parameters
Parameter	Condition	Description
chars	optional	A list of characters to be removed from the string

The method return a copy of the string with the leading and trailing characters removed.

By default, the method removes leading and trailing whitespace.

S = '   Hello, World!   '
x = S.strip()
print(x)

# Prints Hello, World!

Newline '\n', tab '\t' and carriage return '\r' are also considered as whitespace characters.

S = '  \t Hello, World! \n\r '
x = S.strip()
print(x)

# Prints Hello, World!

By adding chars parameter, you can also specify the character you want to strip.

# Strip single character 'a'
S = 'aaabaaaa'
x = S.strip('a')
print(x)

# Prints b

The chars parameter is not a prefix or suffix; rather, all combinations of its values are stripped.

In below example, strip() would strip all the characters provided in the argument i.e. ‘c’, ‘m’, ‘o’, ‘w’, ‘z’ and ‘.’

S = 'www.example.com'
x = S.strip('cmowz.')
print(x)    

# Prints example

Characters are removed from both ends until reaching a string character that is not contained in the set of characters in chars.

S = 'xxxxSxxxxSxxxx'
x = S.strip('x')
print(x)

# Prints SxxxxS

Here is another example:

S = '... - Version 3.2 Model-32 ...'
x = S.strip('.- ')
print(x)

# Prints Version 3.2 Model-32