star_out

Return a version of the given string, where for every star () in the string the star and the chars immediately to its left and right are gone. So “abcd” yields “ad” and “ab**cd” also yields “ad”.

This exercise was taken from codingbat.com and has been adapted for the Python language. There are many great programming exercises there, but the majority are created for Java.

Test 1

Input:

'ab*cd'

Output:

'ad'

Test 2

Input:

'ab**cd'

Output:

'ad'

Test 3

Input:

'sm*eilly'

Output:

'silly'

Test 4

Input:

'sm*eil*ly'

Output:

'siy'

Test 5

Input:

'sm**eil*ly'

Output:

'siy'

Test 6

Input:

'sm***eil*ly'

Output:

'siy'

Test 7

Input:

'stringy*'

Output:

'string'

Test 8

Input:

'*stringy'

Output:

'tringy'

Test 9

Input:

'*str*in*gy'

Output:

'ty'

Test 10

Input:

'abc'

Output:

'abc'

Test 11

Input:

'a*bc'

Output:

'c'

Test 12

Input:

'ab'

Output:

'ab'

Test 13

Input:

'a*b'

Output:

''

Test 14

Input:

'a'

Output:

'a'

Test 15

Input:

'a*'

Output:

''

Test 16

Input:

'*a'

Output:

''

Test 17

Input:

'*'

Output:

''

Test 18

Input:

''

Output:

''