How to loop through array of strings Python - python-2.7

Question

in order to execute this code, which basically deletes a word from a sentence, we have to use split.string in order to access words.
def censor(text, word):
splitstring=text.split()
for elem in range(len(splitstring)):
if splitstring[elem]==word:
splitstring[elem]='*'*len(word)
return " ".join(splitstring)**strong text**
why can't we use use a "traditional" for-loop, as if looping through a word for a letter?
for word in text:
for elem in word:
if elem==word:
word='*'*len(word) """etc"""

Answer 1

There are multiple questions here:
When we iterate over a string of text, why do we get individual letters not words ?
The Zen of Python states "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it."
A string is a just string of characters. It may or may not have individual words in it. The most obvious way to iterate over a string is one character at a time.
When we iterate using "for word in text" and modify "word", why doesn't "text" change ?
The answer has two parts to it:
(a) Strings are immutable in Python, so whenever you modify a string, you get a new string while the original one remains unmodified. So there is no way to modify string "text" other than by reassigning "text" to a new string.
(b) Even if strings were mutable, when you iterate over an iterable, you only get copies of the elements. So modifying them has no effect on the iterable object.
"for elem in range(len(splitstring))" looks clumsy. What is the right way to do this in Python ?
Ok, I made up this question. But the answer is still important. The Pythonic way to do this is:
for elem in splitstring:
Or if you need the index of each element, then you do this:
for index, elem in enumerate(splitstring):