Replace does not work inside a function

Question

I noticed the following strange behaviour when I try to use replace in a function. Let's say we have the following function:

def string_replace(string, arg):
    string.replace(arg, "")
    return string

This function is supposed to get rid of the arg in the string argument, but it doesn't seem to work. For example:

string_replace('There.', '.') < There.

But if I type: "There.".replace(".", "") everything goes smoothly.

Any logical explanation?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 13 '18 at 00:32

2

In Python strings are immutable so you are not modifying it in place. Any of the following will work:

def string_replace(string, arg):
    string = string.replace(arg, "")
    return string

def string_replace(string, arg):
    return string.replace(arg, "")

answered Mar 13 '18 at 00:32

Jim Wright

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Yep, thanks. The other post was quite helpful as well. – thanasissdr Mar 13 '18 at 00:36

Replace does not work inside a function

1 Answers1