How to Remove Emojis from Strings in Python?

Dealing with Emojis in Python: Removing Emojis from Strings

Python's str.startswith() function indeed produces an invalid character error when searching for emojis starting with "xf." However, there are alternative methods to effectively remove emojis from strings in Python.

Using Unicode Strings and re.UNICODE Flag

On Python 2, to handle emojis, you need to create Unicode strings using u'' literals. Additionally, pass the re.UNICODE flag during compilation to enable Unicode support:

<code class="python">import re

emoji_pattern = re.compile(
   u"[\U0001F600-\U0001F64F]"  # emoticons
   u"|\U0001F300-\U0001F5FF]"  # symbols & pictographs
   u"|\U0001F680-\U0001F6FF]"  # transport & map symbols
   u"|\U0001F1E0-\U0001F1FF]"  # flags (iOS)", flags=re.UNICODE)

text = u'This dog \U0001F602'
print(text) # with emoji
print(emoji_pattern.sub(r'', text)) # without emoji</code>

Output:

This dog ?
This dog

Using Compiled Regular Expression

Another approach is to use a pre-compiled regular expression:

<code class="python">emoji_patterns = [
   u"[\U0001F600-\U0001F64F]"  # emoticons
   u"|\U0001F300-\U0001F5FF]"  # symbols & pictographs
   u"|\U0001F680-\U0001F6FF]"  # transport & map symbols
   u"|\U0001F1E0-\U0001F1FF]"  # flags (iOS)]
emoji_pattern = re.compile(emoji_pat, flags=re.UNICODE)</code>

Remember, these patterns may not match all emojis. For a more comprehensive list, refer to the Unicode Emoji List.

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