Q: What does Python string.maketrans("","") do?  string.maketrans("","")

gives
 \x00\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07\x08\t\n\x0b\x0c\r\x0e\x0f\x10\x11\x12\x13 
 \x14\x15\x16\x17\x18\x19\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d\x1e\x1f !"#$%&\'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?
 @ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~
 \x7f\x80\x81\x82\x83\x84\x85\x86\x87\x88\x89\x8a\x8b\x8c\x8d\x8e\x8f\x90
\x91\x92\x93\x94\x95\x96\x97\x98\x99\x9a\x9b\x9c\x9d\x9e\x9f\xa0\xa1\xa2
\xa3\xa4\xa5\xa6\xa7\xa8\xa9\xaa\xab\xac\xad\xae\xaf\xb0\xb1\xb2\xb3\xb4
\xb5\xb6\xb7\xb8\xb9\xba\xbb\xbc\xbd\xbe\xbf\xc0\xc1\xc2\xc3\xc4\xc5\xc6\xc7\xc8\xc9
\xca\xcb\xcc\xcd\xce\xcf\xd0\xd1\xd2\xd3\xd4\xd5\xd6\xd7\xd8\xd9\xda\xdb\xdc\xdd\xde
\xdf\xe0\xe1\xe2\xe3\xe4\xe5\xe6\xe7\xe8\xe9\xea\xeb\xec\xed
\xee\xef\xf0\xf1\xf2\xf3\xf4\xf5\xf6\xf7\xf8\xf9\xfa\xfb\xfc\xfd\xfe\xff

What does this mean? 
And how does it help in removing punctuation in a string with the following call: 
 import string
 myStr.translate(string.maketrans("",""), string.punctuation)


A: I'll take some liberties, since Python 2 muddles the line being strings and bytes. There are 256 bytes, ranging from 0 to 255. You can get their byte representation by using chr(). So, all the bytes from 0 to 255 look like this
>>> ''.join(map(chr, range(256)))
'\x00\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07\x08\t\n\x0b\x0c\r\x0e\x0f\x10\x11\x12\x13\
x14\x15\x16\x17\x18\x19\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d\x1e\x1f !"#$%&\'()*+,-./0123456789:;
<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~\x7f\x80
\x81\x82\x83\x84\x85\x86\x87\x88\x89\x8a\x8b\x8c\x8d\x8e\x8f\x90\x91\x92\x93
\x94\x95\x96\x97\x98\x99\x9a\x9b\x9c\x9d\x9e\x9f\xa0\xa1\xa2\xa3\xa4\xa5\xa6
\xa7\xa8\xa9\xaa\xab\xac\xad\xae\xaf\xb0\xb1\xb2\xb3\xb4\xb5\xb6\xb7\xb8\xb9
\xba\xbb\xbc\xbd\xbe\xbf\xc0\xc1\xc2\xc3\xc4\xc5\xc6\xc7\xc8\xc9\xca\xcb\xcc
\xcd\xce\xcf\xd0\xd1\xd2\xd3\xd4\xd5\xd6\xd7\xd8\xd9\xda\xdb\xdc\xdd\xde\xdf
\xe0\xe1\xe2\xe3\xe4\xe5\xe6\xe7\xe8\xe9\xea\xeb\xec\xed\xee\xef\xf0\xf1\xf2
\xf3\xf4\xf5\xf6\xf7\xf8\xf9\xfa\xfb\xfc\xfd\xfe\xff'

string.maketrans(from, to) creates a string of 256 characters, where the characters in from will be replaced by to. For example, string.maketrans('ab01', 'AB89') will return the string from above, but a will be replaced by A, b by B, 0 by 8 and 1 by 9.
>>> string.maketrans('ab01', 'AB89')
'\x00\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07\x08\t\n\x0b\x0c\r\x0e\x0f\x10\x11\x12\x13\
x14\x15\x16\x17\x18\x19\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d\x1e\x1f !"#$%&\'()*+,-./8923456789:;
<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\\]^_`ABcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~\x7f\x80
\x81\x82\x83\x84\x85\x86\x87\x88\x89\x8a\x8b\x8c\x8d\x8e\x8f\x90\x91\x92\x93
\x94\x95\x96\x97\x98\x99\x9a\x9b\x9c\x9d\x9e\x9f\xa0\xa1\xa2\xa3\xa4\xa5\xa6
\xa7\xa8\xa9\xaa\xab\xac\xad\xae\xaf\xb0\xb1\xb2\xb3\xb4\xb5\xb6\xb7\xb8\xb9
\xba\xbb\xbc\xbd\xbe\xbf\xc0\xc1\xc2\xc3\xc4\xc5\xc6\xc7\xc8\xc9\xca\xcb\xcc
\xcd\xce\xcf\xd0\xd1\xd2\xd3\xd4\xd5\xd6\xd7\xd8\xd9\xda\xdb\xdc\xdd\xde\xdf
\xe0\xe1\xe2\xe3\xe4\xe5\xe6\xe7\xe8\xe9\xea\xeb\xec\xed\xee\xef\xf0\xf1\xf2
\xf3\xf4\xf5\xf6\xf7\xf8\xf9\xfa\xfb\xfc\xfd\xfe\xff'

Effectively, string.maketrans('', '') == ''.join(map(chr, range(256))).
This serves as a map, which when provided to str.translate(), it can be used to replace multiple characters with one pass over your string. For the example map above, all characters will remain the same, except from all a turning into A, b into B, etc. If you do myStr.translate(string.maketrans('', '')), you simply don't change anything in myStr.
Finally, translate() has one additional argument, deletechars. If you pass a string for that argument, translate() will translate all characters according to the mapping you provide, but it will ignore, any characters in deletechars. So, putting it all together, myStr.translate(string.maketrans('', ''), string.punctuation) does not change any character in the string, but in the process will ignore any character in string.punctuation. Effectively, you have removed the punctuation in the output string.

A: string.maketrans(intab, outtab)returns a translation table that maps each character in the intabstring into the character at the same position in the outtab string.
tran_table = string.maketrans(intab, outtab)
print myStr.translate(tran_table)

The code above will then translate myStr using your created table. In your case the table generates all characters because you do not specify anything.

A: Python 2.7's string.maketrans() returns a byte value, like your result, which could be used with string.translate().
string.translate(s, table) translates characters in s (Let's call this c) into table[ord(c)]. So \x00 is translated into table[0], and so on. In your case, it's just returning an identity table.
It should be noted that string.translate is deprecated in Python 2.7, and in Python 3.1 and onwards, they are replaced by bytes.maketrans(), bytes.translate(), and the corresponding methods for str ans bytearray.
