can not remove comma from unicode string in Python

Question

I would like to remove a comma from a string in Python. This is the code that I am using:

        next_column = unicode(my_value)
        next_column.replace(",", " ")
        next_column.translate(dict([[ord(char), u''] for char in u',']))
        next_column.translate(dict([[ord(char), None] for char in u',']))
        if my_key == "practice_name":
            nc = str(next_column)
            nc.replace(",", " ")
            nc.replace(',', " ")
            pprint(nc)

The pprint shows:

'Phoenix Electronics, LLC'

The comma is still there.

"my_value" comes from a Postgres database, an old legacy app where the company failed to check the encoding of what was going into the database.

I don't know if this is a code issue or an encoding issue. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Strings are immutable in Python. `nc.replace(",", " ")` is returning a new string, with the character removed, but not modifying `nc`. A possible duplicate would be the (poorly titled) question [python string replace](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9189172/python-string-replace) — eldarerathis, Dec 06 '14 at 07:05
Thanks much! After so many years with Ruby, I forget Python has some immutable data types. — cerhovice, Dec 06 '14 at 07:44

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 06 '14 at 07:21

0

Try on the same line like,

>>>>import string
>>>>transtab = string.maketrans(",", " ")
>>>>unicodestring = r'Phoenix Electronics, LLC'
>>>>unicodestring.translate(transtab)
    'Phoenix Electronics  LLC'

answered Dec 06 '14 at 07:21

kmario23

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What do you mean "same line"? Which line? You've pasted 4 lines, so I'm not clear which one you are referencing. – cerhovice Dec 06 '14 at 07:34
@cerhovice: Sorry if it's unclear. What I mean to convey is, try to follow the same technique as what I have described above. – kmario23 Dec 06 '14 at 07:52
What makes `r'Phoenix Electronics, LLC'` a unicode string? – martineau Dec 06 '14 at 11:25

can not remove comma from unicode string in Python

1 Answers1