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Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Lists Disemvowel

Posted by Matt Song
Matt Song
2,971 Points

AttributeError: 'builtin_function_or_method' object has no attribute 'remove'

I can't get past this error. I don't know what it means.

disemvowel.py 
def disemvowel(word):
    next_word = 0
    lower_word = word.lower
    upper_word = word.upper

    if next_word == 0:
        try:
            lower_word.remove('a')
            upper_word.remove('a')
            next_word += 1
        except ValueError:
            pass

    elif next_word == 1:
        try:
            lower_word.remove('e')
            upper_word.remove('e')
            next_word += 1
        except ValueError:
            pass

    elif next_word == 2:
        try:
            lower_word.remove('i')
            upper_word.remove('i')
            next_word += 1
        except ValueError:
            pass

    elif next_word == 3:
        try:
            lower_word.remove('o')
            upper_word.remove('o')
            next_word += 1
        except ValueError:
            pass

    elif next_word == 4:
        try:
            lower_word.remove('u')
            upper_word.remove('u')
            next_word += 1
        except ValueError:
            pass

    else:
        return word

2 Answers

Steve Hunter
Steve Hunter
57,712 Points
Steve Hunter
Steve Hunter
57,712 Points

Hi Matt,

I'm not sure what your error is but it isn't liking the use of remove for some reason.

Let's try walking through the solution here. We're given a word which can be a mixture of upper and lower case letters. We want to return word, with the cases preserved, but without the vowels.

I found this challenge easier to build the output string, rather than remove the unwanted letters - removing from something you're iterating over causes problems. I started by declaring an array of lower case vowels. I also declared an empty output string. I then looped over word with a for loop. At each iteration, I tested whether the current letter (lowercased) was not in the array of lowercase vowels. If it wasn't (i.e. we want to include it in the output string) I added with += to the empty output string. Once the loop had completed, I returned the output string.

That saves testing every vowel and preserves the case of the output string, which is required. It also took up seven lines of code so is pretty efficient.

I hope that helped you with the challenge, if not the error itself.

Steve.

Matt Song
Matt Song
2,971 Points

I tried this, but I don't think I did it right. I'm not getting the right answer.

    def disemvowel(word):
        lower_vowels = ["a", "e", "i", "o", "u"]
        output = ''
        word_lower = word.lower

        for word_lower in lower_vowels:
            if word_lower not in lower_vowels:
                output += word

        print(output)
Steve Hunter
Steve Hunter
57,712 Points
Steve Hunter
Steve Hunter
57,712 Points

A few things before I try your code out.

The output is a string - i think you might need to use double quotes for that (I may be wrong!).

Don't lowercase word you want to preserve the case of the input word.

You're looping through the wrong thing. Loop through the input word; that pulls out each letter, then see if that letter is not in vowels. But lowercase it first so, for letter in word: starts your loop. Then see if letter.lower isn't in the array. If it isn't add letter to output.

Lastly, for return the output, don't print it.

Try that and let me know how you get on.

Steve.

Steve Hunter
Steve Hunter
57,712 Points

Checked - you can use single quotes for the output string declaration but the challenge is eager to have the parentheses for the lower() method.

Matt Song
Matt Song
2,971 Points

I changed it to this and it seems to work. How would I do the upper case vowels as well?

    def disemvowel(word):
        lower_vowels = ["a", "e", "i", "o", "u"]
        output = ""

        for letter in word:
            if letter not in lower_vowels:
                output += letter
        return(output)
Steve Hunter
Steve Hunter
57,712 Points

That's great work.

To check the lowercase/uppercase, just convert the letter to lower at the point of testing - so no permanent change - that way you preserve the case out the output to be the same as the input:

    def disemvowel(word):
        lower_vowels = ["a", "e", "i", "o", "u"]
        output = ""

        for letter in word:
            if letter.lower() not in lower_vowels:
                output += letter
        return(output)