Python - Remove Last N Characters From String

In this tutorial, we will look at how to remove the last n characters from a string in Python with the help of some examples.

How to remove the last n characters from a string?

remove last n characters from string in python

Python strings are immutable which means that they cannot be modified. However, you can create a copy of the string with the last n characters removed and assign it to the original string variable.

To remove the last n characters from a string, slice the string from its start to the index of the nth character from the end. Using negative indexing can be helpful here. The following is the syntax –

# remove last n characters from a string
s = s[:-n]

It returns a copy of the original string with the last n characters removed.

Let’s look at some examples -.

Remove the last 2 characters from a string

In this case n = 2, hence we slice the string from its starting index (which is 0) to -2 (which represents the index of the 2nd last character in the string).

# create a string
s = "THIS IS SPARTAAA"
# remove last 2 characters
print(s[:-2])

Output:

THIS IS SPARTA

You can see that the resulting string does not have the last two characters from the original string.

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Remove the last 3 characters from a string

We can similarly use the above syntax to remove the last three characters from a string.

# create a string
s = "THIS IS SPARTAAA"
# remove last 3 characters
print(s[:-3])

Output:

THIS IS SPART

The resulting string has the last three characters removed.

Author

Piyush Raj

Piyush is a data professional passionate about using data to understand things better and make informed decisions. He has experience working as a Data Scientist in the consulting domain and holds an engineering degree from IIT Roorkee. His hobbies include watching cricket, reading, and working on side projects.

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