Most idiomatic way to convert None to empty string?

Question

What is the most idiomatic way to do the following?

def xstr(s):
    if s is None:
        return ''
    else:
        return s

s = xstr(a) + xstr(b)

update: I’m incorporating Tryptich’s suggestion to use str(s), which makes this routine work for other types besides strings. I’m awfully impressed by Vinay Sajip’s lambda suggestion, but I want to keep my code relatively simple.

def xstr(s):
    if s is None:
        return ''
    else:
        return str(s)

Asked By: Mark Harrison

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Source

Answer 1

def xstr(s):
    return '' if s is None else str(s)

Answered By: SilentGhost

Answer 2

def xstr(s):
    return s if s else ''

s = "%s%s" % (xstr(a), xstr(b))

Answered By: phillc

Answer 3

def xstr(s):
    return {None:''}.get(s, s)

Answered By: tobidope

Answer 4

If you actually want your function to behave like the str() built-in, but return an empty string when the argument is None, do this:

def xstr(s):
    if s is None:
        return ''
    return str(s)

Answered By: Kenan Banks

Answer 5

Functional way (one-liner)

xstr = lambda s: '' if s is None else s

Answered By: Dario

Answer 6

Use short circuit evaluation:

s = a or '' + b or ''

Since + is not a very good operation on strings, better use format strings:

s = "%s%s" % (a or '', b or '')

Answered By: sharjeel

Answer 7

If you know that the value will always either be a string or None:

xstr = lambda s: s or ""

print xstr("a") + xstr("b") # -> 'ab'
print xstr("a") + xstr(None) # -> 'a'
print xstr(None) + xstr("b") # -> 'b'
print xstr(None) + xstr(None) # -> ''

Answered By: Vinay Sajip

Answer 8

return s or '' will work just fine for your stated problem!

Answered By: Alex Martelli

Answer 9

Variation on the above if you need to be compatible with Python 2.4

xstr = lambda s: s is not None and s or ''

Answered By: Peter Ericson

Answer 10

def xstr(s):
   return s or ""

Answered By: Krystian Cybulski

Answer 11

Probably the shortest would be
str(s or '')

Because None is False, and “x or y” returns y if x is false. See Boolean Operators for a detailed explanation. It’s short, but not very explicit.

Answered By: dorvak

Answer 12

UPDATE:

I mainly use this method now:

some_string = None
some_string or ''

If some_string was not NoneType, the or would short circuit there and return it, otherwise it returns the empty string.

OLD:

Max function worked in python 2.x but not in 3.x:

max(None, '')  # Returns blank
max("Hello", '') # Returns Hello

Answered By: radtek

Answer 13

We can always avoid type casting in scenarios explained below.

customer = "John"
name = str(customer)
if name is None
   print "Name is blank"
else: 
   print "Customer name : " + name

In the example above in case variable customer’s value is None the it further gets casting while getting assigned to ‘name’. The comparison in ‘if’ clause will always fail.

customer = "John" # even though its None still it will work properly.
name = customer
if name is None
   print "Name is blank"
else: 
   print "Customer name : " + str(name)

Above example will work properly. Such scenarios are very common when values are being fetched from URL, JSON or XML or even values need further type casting for any manipulation.

Answered By: Pralhad Narsinh Sonar

Answer 14

A neat one-liner to do this building on some of the other answers:

s = (lambda v: v or '')(a) + (lambda v: v or '')(b)

or even just:

s = (a or '') + (b or '')

Answered By: Willem van Ketwich

Answer 15

If it is about formatting strings, you can do the following:

from string import Formatter

class NoneAsEmptyFormatter(Formatter):
    def get_value(self, key, args, kwargs):
        v = super().get_value(key, args, kwargs)
        return '' if v is None else v

fmt = NoneAsEmptyFormatter()
s = fmt.format('{}{}', a, b)

Answered By: maciek

Answer 16

Use F string if you are using python v3.7

xstr = F"{s}"

Answered By: guagay_wk

Answer 17

Same as Vinay Sajip’s answer with type annotations, which precludes the needs to str() the result.

def xstr(s: Optional[str]) -> str:
    return '' if s is None else s

Answered By: Jonathan

Most idiomatic way to convert None to empty string?

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