Remove xa0 from String in Python

In this post, we will see how to remove xa0 from String in python

Python programmers have to deal with large amounts of various Unicode characters that appear when parsing HTML files and while using the Beautiful Soup library for dealing with HTML files. One such Unicode character is the xa0, which represents spaces in the Unicode format. This tutorial focuses on the different ways in which we can remove xa0 from string in python.

The article demonstrates two ways to complete this task, and both of these ways have further branches which will be explained in the article below.

The first part of the article focuses on the different ways available to remove xa0 from string in Python, while the latter part focuses on the different ways available to replace xa0 with space in python.

How to remove xa0 from string in python?

• Using the decode() function.
• Using the re library.
• Using the normalize() function from the unicodedata library.
• Using the get_text() function from the BeautifulSoup library.

Using the decode() function to remove xa0 from string in python.

This method was actively utilized in the cases of strings in Python 2. As its name suggests, this function is utilized to decode the given string and return the initial string before encoding as the output.

Before moving on to the demonstration of how to implement this task using the decode() function, we should note that the decode() function can only be used on strings in Python 2, and making use of the decode() function in Python 3 is not allowed.

The following code uses the decode() function to remove xa0 from string in python.

The above code provides the following output:

Here, we should note that this program would give an error if it runs on Python 3. Moreover, we have followed the rules acceptable on Python 2 for writing this code.

Using the re library to remove xa0 from string in python.

The re library, which is an acronym for Regular Expression, helps in dealing with Regular Expressions in Python. This method takes the re.sub() function along with the decode() function and the strip() function to implement the task of removing xa0 from string in python.

The re library needs to be imported to the python code in order to use this method without any errors.

The following code uses the re library to remove xa0 from string in python.

The above code provides the following output:

This method successfully removes xa0 from string in Python. However, because this way uses the decode() function along with the re library, this method is also applicable in Python 2.

Using the normalize() function from the unicodedata library to remove xa0 from string in python.

We can use the unicodedata module to work with the Unicode Character Database in Python.

The normalize() function from the unicodedata library is used to provide the normal form of a given Unicode string. To remove xa0 from string in Python, we can use the value NFKD in the normalize() function, which is an abbreviation for Normal Form KD.

The use of NFKD in the normalize() function results in the substitution of all the characters into their equivalent values. The equivalent value of xa0, for example, is a space.

The following code uses the normalize() function from the unicodedata library to remove xa0 from string in python.

The above code provides the following output:

Using the get_text() function from the BeautifulSoup library to remove xa0 from string in python.

The BeautifulSoup library enables a programmer to perform HTML scraping in Python. The get_text() method of the BeautifulSoup library can eliminate values unnecessary values like xa0 from string in Python when the strip parameter is set to True.

It could also hold another advantage if the \xa0 problem occurs while HTML scraping because using this function does not need you to import any external module and would simply work as it is a part of the BeautifulSoup library.

The following code uses the get_text() function from the BeautifulSoup library to remove xa0 from string in python.

The above code provides the following output:

How to replace xa0 with space in python?

This half of this article now focuses on the different ways available to replace xa0 with space in python.

• Using the replace() function.
• Using the split() function along with the join() function.

Using the replace() function to replace xa0 with space in python.

The replace() can be utilized to replace xa0 with space in Python. The replace() works by substituting the given substring with another specified substring.

The following code uses the replace() function to replace xa0 with space in python.

The above code provides the following output:

Moreover, this function allows us to specify the number of occurrences of the word that we want to substitute in the function. The count parameter is used for implementing this. However, it defaults to replace all occurrences of the given specified word.

Using the split() function along with the join() function to replace xa0 with space in python.

The \xa0 character is recognized as just a space character in Python, which makes it easy to use the split() function on it and then eventually join it with whitespace.

The following code uses the split() function along with the join() function to replace xa0 with space in python.

The above code provides the following output:

Conclusion

This article was focused on and provided the different ways available to remove xa0 from string in python. First, we look at the methods to remove xa0 from string in python, while the latter half of the article demonstrates how to replace xa0 with space in python.

The last two methods of the former part, namely the normalize() function and the get_text() function can be utilized to replace xa0 with space as well.

It is also important to know that the split() function can also be used to implement the task of simply removing xa0 from string in Python.

That’s all about how to remove Xa0 from String in Python.