How To Use Text Strip() Function?

I can strip numerics but not alpha characters: >>> text '132abcd13232111' >>> text.strip('123') 'abcd' Why the following is not working? >>> text.strip

Solution 1:

The reason is simple and stated in the documentation of strip:

str.strip([chars])

Return a copy of the stringwith the leading and trailing characters removed. 
The chars argument is a string specifying the setof characters to be removed.

'abcd' is neither leading nor trailing in the string '132abcd13232111' so it isn't stripped.

Solution 2:

Just to add a few examples to Jim's answer, according to .strip() docs:

• Return a copy of the string with the leading and trailing characters removed.
• The chars argument is a string specifying the set of characters to be removed.
• If omitted or None, the chars argument defaults to removing whitespace.
• The chars argument is not a prefix or suffix; rather, all combinations of its values are stripped.

So it doesn't matter if it's a digit or not, the main reason your second code didn't worked as you expected, is because the term "abcd" was located in the middle of the string.

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Example1:

s = '132abcd13232111'print(s.strip('123'))
print(s.strip('abcd'))

Output:

abcd
132abcd13232111

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Example2:

t = 'abcd12312313abcd'print(t.strip('123'))
print(t.strip('abcd'))

Output:

abcd12312313abcd
12312313