Python : How to remove characters from a string by Index ?

In this article we will discuss how to remove characters from a string at specific index position or in a given range of indices.

We can remove characters from string by slicing the string into pieces and then joining back those pieces.

String Slicing

In Python strings are immutable i.e. we can not modify the string objects. Therefore when we slice a string it returns a new string object instead of modifying then original one.

We can slice a string using operator [] i.e.

stringObject[ start : stop : interval]

It returns a new string object containing parts of given string i.e. it selects a range from start to stop-1 with given step size i.e. interval.

Let’s use slicing to remove characters from a string by index.

Remove a character from string at specific index

Suppose we have a string object i.e.

strObj = "This is a sample string"

Let’s remove the character at index 5 in above created string object i.e.

index = 5
# Slice string to remove character at index 5
if len(strObj) > index:
    strObj = strObj[0 : index : ] + strObj[index + 1 : :]

Output:

Modified String :  This s a sample string

It deleted the character at index 5 i.e. ‘i’ from ‘is’ in the above string.

As we can not modify the immutable string objects, so to simulate the removal effect we just selected the sub string from index [0 to index) & [index+1 to end), then merged those sub strings and assigned it back to the original string.  Cheeky trick 😉

Now let’s use the same trick to achieve other things i.e.

Remove First Character from a String

Just select the range from index 1 to end and assign it back to original string i.e.

strObj = "This is a sample string"

# Slice string to remove first character
strObj = strObj[1 : : ]

print('Modified String : ' , strObj)

Output:

Modified String :  his is a sample string

Remove Last Character from a String

Just select the range from index 0 to end – 1 and assign it back to original string i.e.

strObj = "This is a sample string"

# Slice string to remove last character
strObj = strObj[:-1:]

Output:

Modified String :  This is a sample strin

Remove multiple characters from a string in given index range

We can use the same trick to delete the multiple characters from a given string for a given index range.

For example let’s see how to delete the characters in index range 5 to 10 from a given string i.e.

strObj = "This is a sample string"

start = 5
stop = 10
# Remove charactes from index 5 to 10
if len(strObj) > stop :
    strObj = strObj[0: start:] + strObj[stop + 1::]

Output:

Modified String :  This ample string

Complete example is as follows :

def main():

   print('*** Remove character at specific index ***')

   strObj = "This is a sample string"

   index = 5
   # Slice string to remove character at index 5
   if len(strObj) > index:
       strObj = strObj[0 : index : ] + strObj[index + 1 : :]

   print('Modified String : ', strObj)

   print('*** Remove first character ***')

   strObj = "This is a sample string"

   # Slice string to remove first character
   strObj = strObj[1 : : ]

   print('Modified String : ' , strObj)

   print('*** Remove Last character ***')

   strObj = "This is a sample string"

   # Slice string to remove last character
   strObj = strObj[:-1:]

   print('Modified String : ', strObj)


   print('*** Remove multiple characters at index range***')


   strObj = "This is a sample string"

   start = 5
   stop = 10
   # Remove charactes from index 5 to 10
   if len(strObj) > stop :
       strObj = strObj[0: start:] + strObj[stop + 1::]

   print('Modified String : ', strObj)


if __name__ == '__main__':
   main()

Output:

*** Remove character at specific index ***
Modified String :  This s a sample string
*** Remove first character ***
Modified String :  his is a sample string
*** Remove Last character ***
Modified String :  This is a sample strin
*** Remove multiple characters at index range***
Modified String :  This ample string