str_replace_multi.py

def str_replace_multi(string, replacements, empty_if_list=True):
    try:
        iterator = repls.iteritems()
    except:
        if isinstance(replacements, (list, tuple)):
            first = iter(replacements)
            second = ['']*len(replacements) if empty_if_list else\
                     first
            iterator = dict(zip(first, second))
        else:
            return string
    return reduce(lambda a, kv: a.replace(*kv), iterator, string)