python - Removing white spaces and punctuation from list -

def wordlist (l: list) -> list:     '''returns wordlist without white spaces , punctuation'''     result = []     table = str.maketrans('!()-[]:;"?.,', '            ')     x in l:         n = x.translate(table)         n = x.strip()         n = x.split()         if n != []:             result.extend(n)     return result 

the function supposed work this:

print(wordlist(['  testing', '????', 'function!!'])) 

should yield:

['testing', 'function'] 

but code have above yields:

['testing', '??', 'function!!'] 

so assume i'm doing incorrectly code in regards removing punctuation--where should fix it? other suggestions simplify code appreciated (since figured it's bit long-winded).

did mean chain translate(table), strip() , split() calls?

then

n = x.translate(table) n = x.strip() n = x.split() 

should be

n = x.translate(table) n = n.strip() # change x n n = n.split() # same here 

or

n = x.translate(table).split() 

no need intermediate strip().

as further simplification, don't have check emptiness of n, looks premature optimization me:

if n != []: # can remove line     result.extend(n) 

the result:

def wordlist (l: list) -> list:     '''returns wordlist without white spaces , punctuation'''     result = []     table = str.maketrans('!()-[]:;"?.,', '            ')     x in l:         result.extend(x.translate(table).split())     return result 

you can replace loop list comprehension.