def clean_columns(columns, valid_regex=r'\w', lower=True, max_len=32):
    """ Ensure all column name strings are valid python variable/attribute names 

    >>> df = pd.DataFrame(np.zeros((2, 3)), columns=['WAT??', "Don't do th!s, way too long. ya-think????", 'ok-this123.456'])
    >>> df.columns = clean_columns(df.columns, max_len=12)
    >>> df.head()
       wat  dont_do_ths_  okthis123456
    0  0.0           0.0           0.0
    1  0.0           0.0           0.0
    """
    rettype = None
    if isinstance(columns, str):
        rettype = type(columns)
        columns = [columns]

    columns = [c.strip() for c in columns]
    # # unnecessary because these are invalid characters removed below
    # columns = [(c[1:-1] if c[0] in '\'"' and c[-1] == c[0] else c) for c in columns]
    # columns = [(c[1:-1] if c[0] in '{([<' and c[-1] in '})]>' else c) for c in columns]
    columns = [re.sub('\s+', '_', c).lower() for c in columns]
    columns = remove_invalid_chars(columns, valid_regex=r'\w')
    columns = [c[:max_len] for c in columns]
    columns = np.array(columns) if rettype is None else rettype(columns[0])
    return columns