A better way to use , replace() in python

Question

I built a pretty basic program ,,, that will take input in English ,, and encrypt it using random alphabets of different languages ;; And also decrypt it :-

def encrypt_decrypt():
    inut =  input("Text to convert  ::--  ")


# feel free to replace the symbols ,,  with ur own carecters or numbers or something 
# u can also add numbers , and other carecters for encryption or decryption

    decideing_variable = input("U wanna encrypt or decrypt ?? ,,  write EN  or  DE ::-  ")
    if decideing_variable == "EN":
        deep = inut.replace("a", "ᛟ").replace("b", "ᛃ").replace("c", "Ῡ").replace("d", "ϰ").replace("e", "Г").replace("f", "ξ").replace("g", "ᾫ").replace("h", "ῆ").replace("i", "₪").replace("j", "א").replace("k", "ⴽ").replace("l", "ⵞ").replace("m", "ⵥ").replace("n", "ঙ").replace("o", "Œ").replace("p", "უ").replace("q", "ক").replace("r", "ჶ").replace("s", "Ø").replace("t", "ю").replace("u", "ʧ").replace("v", "ʢ").replace("w", "ұ").replace("x", "Џ").replace("y", "န").replace("z", "໒")
        print(f"\n{deep}\n")
    elif decideing_variable == "DE":
        un_deep = inut.replace("ᛟ", "a").replace("ᛃ", "b").replace("Ῡ", "c").replace("ϰ", "d").replace("Г", "e").replace("ξ","f").replace("ᾫ", "g").replace("ῆ", "h").replace("₪", "i").replace("א", "j").replace("ⴽ", "k").replace("ⵞ", "l").replace("ⵥ", "m").replace("ঙ", "n").replace("Œ", "o").replace("უ", "p").replace("ক", "q").replace("ჶ", "r").replace("Ø", "s").replace("ю", "t").replace("ʧ", "u").replace("ʢ", "v").replace("ұ", "w").replace("Џ", "x").replace("န", "y").replace("໒", "z")
        print(f"\n{un_deep}\n")





encrypt_decrypt()

while writing this I didn't know any better way then chaining .replace() function ,,,

But I have a feeling , that this isn't the proper way to do it ,,

The code works fine . But ,, does any one know a better way of doing this ?

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 17 '22 at 12:40

It looks like you are doing a character by character replacement. The function you are looking for is string.maketrans. You can give strings of equal length to convert each character to the desired character. Here is a working example online:

# first string
firstString = "abc"
secondString = "def"
string = "abc"
print(string.maketrans(firstString, secondString))

# example dictionary
firstString = "abc"
secondString = "defghi"
string = "abc"
print(string.maketrans(firstString, secondString))

You can also look at the official documentation for further details.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 17 '22 at 12:43

You can make a dictionary for corresponding words and use this,

text = "ababdba"
translation = {'a':'ᛟ', 'b':'ᛃ', 'c':'Ῡ','d': 'ϰ','e': 'Г','f': 'ξ','g': 'ᾫ','h':'ῆ','i': '₪','j': 'א','k': 'ⴽ','l': 'ⵞ','m' :'ⵥ','n': 'ঙ','o': 'Œ','p': 'უ','q': 'ক','r': 'ჶ','s': 'Ø','t': 'ю','u': 'ʧ', 'v':'ʢ','w': 'ұ','x': 'Џ','y': 'န','z': '໒'}

def translate(text,translation):
    result = []
    for char in text:
        result.append( translation[char] )
    return "".join(result)

print(translate(text,translation))

result is

ᛟᛃᛟᛃϰᛃᛟ

This might help you.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 17 '22 at 12:45

str.translate() and str.maketrans() are built to do all of the replacements in one go.

e.g.

>>> encrypt_table = str.maketrans("abc", "ᛟᛃῩ")
>>> "an abacus".translate(encrypt_table)
'ᛟn ᛟᛃᛟῩus'

NB. not string.maketrans() which is how it used to be in Python 2, and is now outdated; Python 3 turned that into two systems, str.maketrans() for text and bytes.maketrans() for bytes. see How come string.maketrans does not work in Python 3.1?

A better way to use , replace() in python

3 Answers3