Translate
str.translate is a Python string method that returns a copy with characters transformed or deleted according to a translation table.
The Quick Python Book, Fourth Edition
translate is a Python string method that returns a copy of a string with characters transformed or removed according to a translation table.
- How it is used
- Normalizes text and performs coordinated character substitutions or removals before splitting, counting, or writing words.
- How deep it goes
- Explains translation tables, positional mappings, removal, immutability, and loop efficiency through compact runnable examples.
- Examples
- Uses operator conversion, punctuation removal, word normalization, and cleaning the Moby-Dick text file.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Python string methods to transform or remove many characters efficiently in text-processing pipelines.
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Tiny Python Projects: Learn coding and testing with puzzles and games
str.translate() is a Python string method that returns a new string by mapping characters according to a translation table.
- How it is used
- Maps characters in strings for compact, one-pass substitutions while preserving characters absent from the translation table.
- How deep it goes
- Defines translation tables, Unicode ordinal mappings, replacement strings, deletion with None, and lookup behavior.
- Examples
- Demonstrates encoding phone-like digit strings while leaving letters, spaces, hyphens, and equals signs unchanged.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via str.maketrans() and str.translate() to build reusable character-substitution transformations.
Read how Tiny Python Projects: Learn coding and testing with puzzles and games explains translate →
Related concepts
- replace methodalternative to · A replace operation substitutes selected matching content or values with specified alternatives in a string, collection, or other object, either returning a result or modifying the object.
- translation tableuses · A translation table is a mapping from source items to corresponding replacement, standardized, or translated values.
- stringalternative to · A string is a programming-language value representing an ordered sequence of characters or character units as text.
- loopcontrasts with · A loop is a programming control-flow construct that repeatedly executes a block of instructions according to an iteration rule or continuation condition.
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