String helpers

Add string processing methods.

The slugify method

We'll write a slugify method to turn a string into a URL-friendly form. The method lowercases the letters and replaces spaces with hyphens; this makes titles or tags fit for links.

Example: "Hello World".lower().replace(" ", "-") gives "hello-world". We'll add this as a slugify(self, text) method on the class. The method takes a parameter and returns the transformed string. The same shape works for titles, tags and file names.

Method chaining

Chaining is passing the result of one method to another with a dot. text.lower().replace(...) first calls lower(), then sends its result to replace().

Read left to right: text → .lower() → lowercased string → .replace(...) → hyphenated string. Each step returns a str, so the chain continues. This style is short and readable.

Exercise Add slugify to Utility

Add a def slugify(self, text): method to the Utility class. In the body write return text.lower().replace(" ", "-"). Then create an instance with u = Utility() and call print(u.slugify("Hello World")).

Show example solution

class Utility:
    version = "1.0"
    def slugify(self, text):
        return text.lower().replace(" ", "-")

u = Utility()
print(u.slugify("Hello World"))

Test yourself

What does slugify("Hello World") return?
- HelloWorld
- hello-world
- hello_world
- HELLO WORLD
Show answer

hello-world — lower() lowercases, replace(" ", "-") turns spaces into hyphens.

Complete the slugify body

class Utility:
    def slugify(self, text):
        return text.____().replace(" ", "-")

Show answer

class Utility:
    def slugify(self, text):
        return text.lower().replace(" ", "-")

Match the slugify parts

slugify

Method name
text.lower()

Lowercase
.replace(" ", "-")

Space to hyphen

Next lesson: Number helpers

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