Python: Get a string made of the first 2 and the last 2 chars from a given a string

Last update on June 12 2025 12:43:15 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Get string of first and last 2 chars.

Write a Python program to get a string made of the first 2 and last 2 characters of a given string. If the string length is less than 2, return the empty string instead.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Define a function named string_both_ends that takes one argument, 'str'.
def string_both_ends(str):
    # Check if the length of the input string 'str' is less than 2 characters.
    if len(str) < 2:
        # If the string is shorter than 2 characters, return an empty string.
        return ''

    # If the string has at least 2 characters, concatenate the first two characters
    # and the last two characters of the input string and return the result.
    return str[0:2] + str[-2:]

# Call the string_both_ends function with different input strings and print the results.
print(string_both_ends('w3resource'))  # Output: 'w3ce'
print(string_both_ends('w3'))          # Output: 'w3w3'
print(string_both_ends('w'))           # Output: '' 

Sample Output:

w3ce                                                                                                          
w3w3 

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a Python program to return a string made of the first two and the last two characters of a given string using slicing.
• Write a Python program to implement the extraction of the first two and last two characters recursively.
• Write a Python program to use conditional expressions to return the concatenated substring if the string length is at least 2, else return an empty string.
• Write a Python program to check the length of a string and output a new string composed of its first and last two characters using a ternary operator.

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