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Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Lists Disemvowel

Posted by Tiago Ramos
Tiago Ramos
2,380 Points

Can't I remove the vowels one by one?

I know this is not the most elegant way, but it should work right?

Can somebody help me with the logic?

disemvowel.py 
def disemvowel(word):
    word.remove("a")
    word.remove("e")
    word.remove("i")
    word.remove("o")
    word.remove("u")

    word.remove("A")
    word.remove("E")
    word.remove("I")
    word.remove("O")
    word.remove("U")


    return word

1 Answer

Jennifer Nordell
seal-mask
STAFF
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher
Jennifer Nordell
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher

Hi there! No, unfortunately this won't work. You might try your code in a workspace and see the results. But the bottom line is that you'll get an error. We're sending in a string and strings are immutable. The remove method is specifically for lists. Also, even if remove did work here, it wouldn't remove every instance of a letter. For example, what if you sent in "Balloon"? You need to account for repeating vowels as well.

Hope this helps! :sparkles:

edited for additional hints

Here are some hints:

  • Try making a new empty string
  • Try iterating through the string sent in
  • For every letter that isn't one of those letters add it to your new string
  • When you're done iterating through the string sent in, return the new string you built
Tiago Ramos
Tiago Ramos
2,380 Points

Hi Jennifer thanks for those hints. I've tried something completly new, with some of your tips, but I don't know how iterate.

def disemvowel(word): word_list = word.list() vowels = ["a", "e", "i", "o", "u"]

letter = #iterating letters in word list

for letter in vowels:
    word_list.remove(vowels)

word = word_list.str()

return word
Jennifer Nordell
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher
Jennifer Nordell
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher

Hi again, Tiago! Yes, I can see you've worked on this and that's great! And you are, in fact, iterating. Let me show you how I did it and I'll walk you through it:

def disemvowel(word):
    vowels = "aeiouAEIOU"
    new_word = ""
    for letter in word:
        if letter in vowels:
            continue
        new_word += letter
    return new_word

So we start by defining a function that will receive a word as a string. That was already done for us by Treehouse. Next, I set up a vowels string to contain all the letters we don't want in our returned string. Then I set up a string to hold the string we're going to return back to Treehouse.

Now I go through the string they sent in by saying for every letter in this word, take a look at that letter. If the letter is contained in the vowels string, don't do anything at all. Just move on to the next letter, which is what the continue statement does. However, if it wasn't a vowel, please add it to my new_word. When we're done looking at all the letters in word what we'll have is a new_word that has only had the consonants appended to it. Please return the new_word to the piece of code that asked for it.

Hope this helps clarify things! :sparkles: