Consider this string:

'mailto:mailto:mailto:main@example.com'

If you try to remove the mailtos with lstrip('mailto:'), you'll be left with this:

'n@example.com'

That's because the three strip functions look at each character separately rather than as a whole string.

Currently, as a workaround, you have to either use regex or a loop. This can take several lines of code.

It would be great if the strip functions had a second parameter that lets you keep the first parameter intact.

You could then use this code to get the desired result:

'mailto:mailto:mailto:main@example.com'.lstrip('mailto:', true)
>>main@example.com