Remove whitespace in Python using string.whitespace

Question

Python\'s string.whitespace is great:

>>> string.whitespace
\'\\t\\n\\x0b\\x0c\\r \'

How do I use this with a string without resor

Answer 1

a starting point .. (although it's not shorter than manually assembling the whitespace circus) ..

>>> from string import whitespace as ws
>>> import re

>>> p = re.compile('(%s)' % ('|'.join([c for c in ws])))
>>> s = "Please \n don't \t hurt \x0b me."

>>> p.sub('', s)
"Pleasedon'thurtme."

Or if you want to reduce whitespace to a maximum of one:

>>> p1 = re.compile('(%s)' % ('|'.join([c for c in ws if not c == ' '])))
>>> p2 = re.compile(' +')
>>> s = "Please \n don't \t hurt \x0b me."

>>> p2.sub(' ', p1.sub('', s))
"Please don't hurt me."

Third way, more compact:

>>> import string

>>> s = "Please \n don't \t hurt \x0b me."
>>> s.translate(None, string.whitespace[])
"Pleasedon'thurtme."

>>> s.translate(None, string.whitespace[:5])
"Please  don't  hurt  me."

>>> ' '.join(s.translate(None, string.whitespace[:5]).split())
"Please don't hurt me."