Python: Replace all but the last five characters of a given string into "*" and returns the new masked string

Last update on April 17 2025 13:05:27 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Mask All But Last Five Characters

Write a Python program that replaces all but the last five characters of a string with "*" and returns the modified string.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Define a function named new_string that takes a string (str1) as an argument.
def new_string(str1):
    # Create a new string composed of '*' repeated (len(str1) - 5) times, followed by the last 5 characters of the original string.
    return '*' * (len(str1) - 5) + str1[-5:]
	
# Test the function with different strings and print the results.

# Test case 1
text = "kdi39323swe"
# Print the original string.
print("Original String: ", text)
# Print the new string generated by the function.
print("new string: ", new_string(text))

# Test case 2
text = "12345abcdef"
# Print the original string.
print("\nOriginal String: ", text)
# Print the new string generated by the function.
print("new string: ", new_string(text))

# Test case 3
text = "12345"
# Print the original string.
print("\nOriginal String: ", text)
# Print the new string generated by the function.
print("new string: ", new_string(text))

Sample Output:

Original String:  kdi39323swe
new string:  ******23swe

Original String:  12345abcdef
new string:  ******bcdef

Original String:  12345
new string:  12345

Explanation:

Here is a breakdown of the above Python code:

Function definition:

The code defines a function named "new_string()" that takes a string (str1) as an argument.

String Composition:

The function creates a new string by concatenating '*' repeated (len(str1) - 5) times and the last 5 characters of the original string (str1[-5:]).

Test cases:

The function is tested with different strings, and the original strings along with the new strings are printed.

Visual Presentation:

Python: Replace all but the last five characters of a given string into '*' and returns the new masked string.

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Python program to replace all characters in a string except the last five with asterisks.
Write a Python program to generate a masked version of a string that shows only the final five characters.
Write a Python program to create a new string that hides all but the last five characters using slicing.
Write a Python program to mask the beginning portion of a string while preserving its last five characters.

Go to:

Previous: Write a Python program to compute the sum of the three lowest positive numbers from a given list of numbers.
Next: Write a Python program to count the number of arguments in a given function.

Python Code Editor:

Have another way to solve this solution? Contribute your code (and comments) through Disqus.