remove leading null characters from string in python

Question

I have a string with leading NUL characters I can see them as null when i open it in notepad++ else its shows as empty space, but any of the strip functions on string doesnot work how can I remove it?

exp=
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      {"asctime": "2021-09-07 18:58:37,645", "name": "Frontend_Tableau", "levelname": "DEBUG", "message": "Extracted Dashboard details from tableau", "type": "dashboard", "Name": "Overview"}

this is what i have tried

exp.lstrip()

What if you do exp = exp.decode('utf-8').lstrip('\x00').encode('utf-8'). Also, don't forget that lstrip is not modifying the value in-place, so you have to reassign it (like exp = exp.lstrip) — jkoestinger
– jkoestinger, Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 13:49
exp.lstrip() This is actually working. >>> >>> exp = " Manjesh" >>> exp ' Manjesh' >>> exp.lstrip() 'Manjesh' Tested on Python 3.9 Terminal and works great — manjesh23
– manjesh23, Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 13:51
@jkoestinger exp is a string type so decode is not supported can I try exp=exp.lstrip('\x00') is it correct? — shee
– shee, Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 13:52
I mixed up encode and decode, they should be inverted, but manjesh23 seems to have tried directly — jkoestinger
– jkoestinger, Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 13:54

jkoestinger · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-07 14:06:56Z

1

encode and decode should definitely work, I did the same tests as manjesh23:

>>> int(0).to_bytes(1, 'big')  # Creating a null byte (I don't know how yours is created in the first place)
b'\x00'

>>> test = int(0).to_bytes(1, 'big').decode('utf-8') + 'hello'  # Storing it as a string

>>> test
'\x00hello'

>>> print(test)
hello

>>> test.lstrip('\x00')
'hello'

>>> print(test.lstrip('\x00'))
hello

If it still doesn't work, we're missing some extra information I think

answered Sep 7, 2021 at 14:06

jkoestinger

1,0107 silver badges9 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

remove leading null characters from string in python

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related