Python Exercises: Replace a word with hash characters in a string

Last update on April 19 2025 13:06:24 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Replace long words with hash.

Write a Python program to replace each character of a word of length five and more with a hash character (#).

Sample Solution-1:

Python Code:

# Define a function to replace words with hash characters if their length is five or more
def test(text):
    # Iterate through each word in the string
    for i in text.split():
        # Check if the length of the word is greater than or equal to 5
        if len(i) >= 5:
            # If true, replace the word with '#' repeated for the length of the word
            text = text.replace(i, "#" * len(i))
    
    # Return the modified string
    return text

# Initialize a string with words of varying lengths
text = "Count the lowercase letters in the said list of words:"
print("Original string:", text)

# Print a message indicating the replacement of words with hash characters
print("Replace words (length five or more) with hash characters in the said string:")

# Call the function to replace words and print the result
print(test(text))

# Repeat the process with a different string
text = "Python - Remove punctuations from a string:"
print("\nOriginal string:", text)

# Print a message indicating the replacement of words with hash characters
print("Replace words (length five or more) with hash characters in the said string:")

# Call the function to replace words and print the result
print(test(text))

Sample Output:

Original string: Count the lowercase letters in the said list of words:
Replace words (length five or more) with hash characters in the said string:
##### the ######### ####### in the said list of ######

Original string: Python - Remove punctuations from a string:
Replace words (length five or more) with hash characters in the said string:
###### - ###### ############ from a #######

Flowchart:

Sample Solution-2:

Python Code:

# Define a concise function to replace words with hash characters if their length is five or more
def test(text):
    # Use a generator expression to replace words based on their length
    return ' '.join('#' * len(i) if len(i) >= 5 else i for i in text.split(' '))

# Initialize a string with words of varying lengths
text ="Count the lowercase letters in the said list of words:"
print("Original string:", text)

# Print a message indicating the replacement of words with hash characters
print("Replace words (length five or more) with hash characters in the said string:")

# Call the function to replace words and print the result
print(test(text))

# Repeat the process with a different string
text = "Python - Remove punctuations from a string:"
print("\nOriginal string:", text)

# Print a message indicating the replacement of words with hash characters
print("Replace words (length five or more) with hash characters in the said string:")

# Call the function to replace words and print the result
print(test(text))

Sample Output:

Original string: Count the lowercase letters in the said list of words:
Replace words (length five or more) with hash characters in the said string:
##### the ######### ####### in the said list of ######

Original string: Python - Remove punctuations from a string:
Replace words (length five or more) with hash characters in the said string:
###### - ###### ############ from a #######

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Python program to replace every character of a word with '#' if the word’s length is five or more.
Write a Python program to use regular expressions to substitute words with length ≥ 5 with a sequence of '#' characters of the same length.
Write a Python program to iterate over words in a sentence and replace each long word with a hashed version while leaving shorter words unchanged.
Write a Python program to implement a function that processes a sentence and returns a new string where words of length five or more are masked with '#'.

Go to:

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