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String replace Example
This page was last reviewed on Jun 26, 2023.
Dot Net Perls
Replace. A string cannot be changed in-place. We cannot assign characters. Instead we use the replace method to create a new string.
With this method, we specify a substring that we want to replace, and another we want to replace it with. We can use an optional second argument.
First example. Let us begin with this simple example. Replace accepts two substring arguments: the "before" and "after" parts that are replaced.
And The third argument is optional. It is a count. It indicates the maximum number of instances to replace.
Tip Replace only handles substrings, not characters. If you need to replace many single characters, please consider the translate method.
String translate
value = "aabc" # Replace a substring with another. result = value.replace("bc", "yz") print(result) # Replace the first occurrence with a substring. result = value.replace("a", "x", 1) print(result)
aayz xabc
Replace count. The third argument to replace() is optional. If we specify it, the replace method replaces that number of occurrences—this is a count argument.
Here We have a string that says "cat cat cat" and we replace all occurrences, 0 occurrences, and 1 and 2 occurrences.
before = "cat cat cat" print(before) # Replace all occurrences. after = before.replace("cat", "bird") print(after) # Replace zero occurrences. # ... This makes no sense. after = before.replace("cat", "bird", 0) print(after) # Replace 1 occurrence. after = before.replace("cat", "bird", 1) print(after) # Replace first 2 occurrences. after = before.replace("cat", "bird", 2) print(after)
cat cat cat bird bird bird cat cat cat bird cat cat bird bird cat
A note. Replace() is needed to change a part of string to a new string. If the index of the match is known, we could use two slices and then construct a new string with concatenation.
Substring
A summary. With replace() we copy a string. The original is not changed. The copied string has the specified number of substrings replaced with a new substring (if found).
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Sam Allen is passionate about computer languages. In the past, his work has been recommended by Apple and Microsoft and he has studied computers at a selective university in the United States.
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