zip_zap

Look for patterns like “zip” and “zap” in the string – length-3, starting with ‘z’ and ending with ‘p’. Return a string where for all such words, the middle letter is gone, so “zipXzap” yields “zpXzp”.

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:

'zipXzap'

Output:

'zpXzp'

Test 2

Input:

'zopzop'

Output:

'zpzp'

Test 3

Input:

'zzzopzop'

Output:

'zzzpzp'

Test 4

Input:

'zibzap'

Output:

'zibzp'

Test 5

Input:

'zip'

Output:

'zp'

Test 6

Input:

'zi'

Output:

'zi'

Test 7

Input:

'z'

Output:

'z'

Test 8

Input:

''

Output:

''

Test 9

Input:

'zzp'

Output:

'zp'

Test 10

Input:

'abcppp'

Output:

'abcppp'

Test 11

Input:

'azbcppp'

Output:

'azbcppp'

Test 12

Input:

'azbcpzpp'

Output:

'azbcpzp'