Python String: obtaining what's left after python string slice

Question

This substring related question appears to never mention another potential goal when slicing strings: obtaining what's left after a slice.

Is there a way to get what's left over when performing a slice operation without two separate steps where you join what's left over?

This would be brute force way, but it uses two slice operations and a join.

myString = "how now brown trow?"  
myString[:4] + myString[-5:]  
>>> 'how trow?'

Can this be done using the slicing notation without making two slices and joining them together?

Your example does not seem to demonstrate ```obtaining what's left after a slice```. — wwii, Mar 12 '15 at 19:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 12 '15 at 19:44

2

No. You can't get non-contiguous pieces with a single slice operation.

answered Mar 12 '15 at 19:44

BrenBarn

I was hoping since the index was contiguous forward and backwards, that the slice would still be classified as contiguous through the wrap-around. – horta Mar 12 '15 at 19:48
@horta: No, you can't get slices that are only contiguous through wraparound. You can slice forward or backward, but not both in the same slice. – BrenBarn Mar 12 '15 at 19:49
@horta This is also not just pure rotation of the string, because you actually want "how trow?", and not "trow?how", which is what you would get from reading it with wrap around (which can be accomplished with a comprehension). – Asad Saeeduddin Mar 12 '15 at 19:56

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 12 '15 at 19:47

2

If the slice is unique that you want to remove you could str.replace:

myString = "how now brown trow?"
s = myString.replace(myString[4:-5],"")
print(s)
how trow?

answered Mar 12 '15 at 19:47

Nice workaround. When working with future data that could be unknown, it wouldn't be safe to assume that it will be unique unfortunately. – horta Mar 12 '15 at 19:49
@horta, yep it is limited but about as close as you will get to a single step – Padraic Cunningham Mar 12 '15 at 19:50
Note this is still two separate steps, it's just a different two steps than in the example in the question. – BrenBarn Mar 12 '15 at 19:50
@BrenBarn, yes and it is limited but about as close as the OP is going to get to what they want to do – Padraic Cunningham Mar 12 '15 at 19:52

2 Answers2