What is the best way to create a string array in python?

The simple answer is, "You don't." At the point where you need something to be of fixed length, you're either stuck on old habits or writing for a very specific problem with its own unique set of constraints.

Are you trying to do something like this?

>>> strs = [s.strip('\(\)') for s in ['some\\', '(list)', 'of', 'strings']]
>>> strs 
['some', 'list', 'of', 'strings']

In python, you wouldn't normally do what you are trying to do. But, the below code will do it:

strs = ["" for x in range(size)]

In Python, the tendency is usually that one would use a non-fixed size list (that is to say items can be appended/removed to it dynamically). If you followed this, there would be no need to allocate a fixed-size collection ahead of time and fill it in with empty values. Rather, as you get or create strings, you simply add them to the list. When it comes time to remove values, you simply remove the appropriate value from the string. I would imagine you can probably use this technique for this. For example (in Python 2.x syntax):

>>> temp_list = []
>>> print temp_list
[]
>>> 
>>> temp_list.append("one")
>>> temp_list.append("two")
>>> print temp_list
['one', 'two']
>>> 
>>> temp_list.append("three")
>>> print temp_list
['one', 'two', 'three']
>>> 

Of course, some situations might call for something more specific. In your case, a good idea may be to use a deque. Check out the post here: Python, forcing a list to a fixed size. With this, you can create a deque which has a fixed size. If a new value is appended to the end, the first element (head of the deque) is removed and the new item is appended onto the deque. This may work for what you need, but I don't believe this is considered the "norm" for Python.