[python] Remove leading and trailing spaces?

I'm having a hard time trying to use .strip with the following line of code.

Thanks for the help.

f.write(re.split("Tech ID:|Name:|Account #:",line)[-1])

This question is related to python

The answer is


Should be noted that strip() method would trim any leading and trailing whitespace characters from the string (if there is no passed-in argument). If you want to trim space character(s), while keeping the others (like newline), this answer might be helpful:

sample = '  some string\n'
sample_modified = sample.strip(' ')

print(sample_modified)  # will print 'some string\n'

strip([chars]): You can pass in optional characters to strip([chars]) method. Python will look for occurrences of these characters and trim the given string accordingly.


Starting file:

     line 1
   line 2
line 3  
      line 4 

Code:

with open("filename.txt", "r") as f:
    lines = f.readlines()
    for line in lines:
        stripped = line.strip()
        print(stripped)

Output:

line 1
line 2
line 3
line 4

Expand your one liner into multiple lines. Then it becomes easy:

f.write(re.split("Tech ID:|Name:|Account #:",line)[-1])

parts = re.split("Tech ID:|Name:|Account #:",line)
wanted_part = parts[-1]
wanted_part_stripped = wanted_part.strip()
f.write(wanted_part_stripped)