isprintable() in Python and its application

Last Updated : 20 Nov, 2017

In Python, isprintable() is a built-in method used for string handling.
The isprintable() methods returns “True” if all characters in the string are printable or the string is empty, Otherwise, It returns “False”.
This function is used to check if the argument contains any printable characters such as :

Digits ( 0123456789 )
Uppercase letters ( ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ )
Lowercase letters ( abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz )
Punctuation characters ( !”#$%&'()*+, -./:;?@[\]^_`{ | }~ )
Space ( )

Syntax :

string.isprintable()
Parameters:
isprintable() does not take any parameters
Returns :
1.True- If all characters in the string are printable or the string is empty.
2.False- If the string contains 1 or more non printable characters.

Examples:

Input : string = 'My name is Ayush'
Output : True

Input : string = 'My name is \n Ayush'
Output : False

Input : string = ''
Output : True

# Python code for implementation of isprintable() 
  
# checking for printable characters 
string = 'My name is Ayush'
print(string.isprintable()) 
  
# checking if \n is a printable character 
string = 'My name is \n Ayush'
print(string.isprintable()) 
  
# checking if space is a printable character 
string = '' 
print( string.isprintable()) 

Output:

True
False
True

Errors Or Exceptions
1. The function does not take any arguments, therefore no parameters should be passed, otherwise it returns an error.
2. The only whitespace character which is printable is space or ” “, otherwise every whitespace character is non-printable and the function returns “False”.
3. Empty string is considered as printable and it returns “True”.

Application : Given a string in python, count number of non-printable characters in the string and replace non-printable characters by a space.
Examples:

Input : string = 'My name is Ayush'
Output : 0
         My name is Ayush

Input : string = 'My\nname\nis\nAyush'
Output : 3
         My name is Ayush

Algorithm:
1. Initialise an empty new string and a variable count = 0.
2. Traverse the given string character by character upto its length, check if character is a non-printable character.
3. If it is a non-printable character, increment the counter by 1, and add a space to the new string.
4. Else if it is a printable character, add it to the new string as it is
5. Print the value of the counter and the new string.

# Python implementation to count  
# non-printable characters in a string 
  
# Given string and new string 
string ='GeeksforGeeks\nname\nis\nCS portal'
newstring = '' 
  
# Initialising the counter to 0 
count = 0
  
# Iterating the string and  
# checking for non-printable characters 
# Incrementing the counter if a  
# non-printable character is found  
# and replacing it by space in the newstring 
  
# Finally printing the count and newstring 
  
for a in string: 
    if (a.isprintable()) == False: 
            count+= 1
            newstring+=' '
    else: 
            newstring+= a 
print(count) 
print(newstring) 

Output:

3
GeeksforGeeks name is CS portal

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