CHAPTER-8 STRINGS

8.1 Introduction:
Definition: Sequence of characters enclosed in single, double or triple quotation marks.
Example:
Str1= ' IIS DAMMAM '
Str2= '' IIS DAMMAM ''
Str2= ''' IIS DAMMAM '''
Str2= '' '' '' IIS DAMMAM '' '' ''
Basics of String:
 Strings are immutable in python. It means it is unchangeable. At the same memory address, the
new value cannot be stored.
 Each character has its index or can be accessed using its index and is written in square brackets ([ ]).
 IndexError: If the index value out of the range.
 Index must be an integer(positive, zero or negative).
 Strings are stored each character in contiguous location.
 The size of string is the total number of characters present in the string.
An inbuilt function len( ) is used to return the length of the string.
Example:
Str1= IIS DAMMAM
>>> len (Str1) # gives the length of the string Str1
OUTPUT: 10
 String in python has a two-way index for each location.
Forward Indices: The index of string in forward direction starts from 0 and last index is n-1
(0, 1, 2, …….) from left to right.
Backward Indices: The index of string in backward direction starts from -1 and last index is
–n (-1, -2, -3,…. ) from right to left.
Example:
Str1= IIS DAMMAM
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
I I S D A M M A M
-10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1
>>> Str1[0] # gives the first character of Str1
'I'
>>> Str1[6] # gives the seventh character of Str1
'M'
>>> Str1[-10] # gives the last character of Str1 from right
'I'
>>> Str1[11] # gives error as index is out of range
IndexError: string index out of range
>>> Str1[1+5] # gives sixth character of Str1
'A'
>>> Str1[1.5] # gives error as index must be an integer
TypeError: string indices must be an integer
>>> Str1[-n] # gives the first character of the string
'I'
>>> Str1[n-1] # gives the last character of the string
'M'
 The character assignment is not supported in string because strings are immutable.
Example:
Str1= IIS DAMMAM
Str1[2] = ‘y’ # it is invalid. Individual letter assignment not allowed in python
1
8.2 String Operators:
a. Basic Operators (+, *)
b. Membership Operators ( in, not in)
c. Comparison Operators (==, !=, <, <=, >, >=)
d. Slicing
a. Basic Operators: There are two basic operators of strings:
i. String concatenation Operator (+)
ii. String repetition Operator (*)
i. String concatenation Operator: Concatenation means to join. The + operator creates a new string
by joining the two strings operand.
Example:
>>>''Hello''+''Python''
OUTPUT: 'HelloPython'
>>>''2''+''7''
OUTPUT: '27'
>>>''Python''+''3.0''
OUTPUT: 'Python3.0'
Note: You cannot concatenate numbers and strings as operands with + operator.
Example:
>>>7+'4' # unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'str'
It is invalid and generates an error.
ii. String repetition Operator: It is also known as String replication operator. It requires two types of
operands- a string and an integer number.
Example:
>>>''you'' * 3 # repeat the value of the string 3 times
OUTPUT: 'youyouyou'
>>>4*''Hello'' # repeat the value of the string 4 times
OUTPUT: 'HelloHelloHelloHello'
Note: You cannot have strings as both the operands with * operator.
Example:
>>>''you'' * ''you'' # can't multiply sequence by non-int of type 'str'
It is invalid and generates an error.
b. Membership Operators:
in – Returns True if a character or a substring exists in the given string; otherwise, False
not in - Returns True if a character or a substring does not exist in the given string; otherwise, False
Example:
>>> "ear" in "Save Earth"
False
>>> "ve Ear" in "Save Earth"
True
>>>"Hi" not in "Save Earth"
True
>>>"8765" not in "9876543"
False
c. Comparison Operators: These operators compare two strings character by character according to their
ASCII value.

2
 Characters ASCII (Ordinal) Value
‘0’ to ‘9’ 48 to 57
‘A’ to ‘Z’ 65 to 90
‘a’ to ‘z’ 97 to 122
Example:
>>> 'abc'>'abcD'
False
>>> 'ABC'<'abc'
True
>>> 'abcd'>'aBcD'
True
>>> 'aBcD'<='abCd'
True
8.3 Finding the Ordinal or Unicode value of a character:
Function Description
ord(<character>) Returns ordinal value of a character
chr(<value>) Returns the corresponding character
Example:
>>> ord('b')
98
>>> chr(65)
'A'
8.4 Slice operator with Strings:
The slice operator slices a string using a range of indices.
Syntax:
string-name[start:end]
where start and end are integer indices. It returns a string from the index start (inclusive) to end (exclusive i.e.
end-1).
Important Note:
The numbers of characters in the substring will always be equal to the difference of two indices.
If the first index is not mentioned, the slice starts from 0 index.
If the second index is not mentioned, the slicing is done till the length of the string.
Negative indexes can also be used for slicing.
Example:

>>> str="data structure"

>>> str[0:14]
'data structure'
>>> str[0:6]
'data s'
>>> str[2:7]
'ta st'
>>> str[-13:-6]
'ata str'
>>> str[-5:-11]
'' #returns empty string
>>> str[:14] # Missing index before colon is considered as 0.
'data structure'
>>> str[0:] # Missing index after colon is considered as 14. (length of string)
'data structure'
3
>>> str[7:]
'ructure'
>>> str[4:]+str[:4]
' structuredata'
>>> str[:4]+str[4:] #for any index str[:n]+str[n:] returns original string
'data structure'
>>> str[8:]+str[:8]
'ucturedata str'
>>> str[8:], str[:8]
('ucture', 'data str')
Slice operator with step index:
Slice operator with strings may have third index. Which is known as step. It is optional.
Syntax:
string-name[start:end:step]
Example:
>>> str="data structure"
>>> str[2:9:2]
't tu'
>>> str[-11:-3:3]
'atc'
Note:
If we ignore both the indexes and give step size as -1, the resulted string will be in reverse order.
>>> str[: : -1] # reverses a string
'erutcurts atad'
Interesting Fact: Index out of bounds causes error with strings but slicing a string outside theindex does not
cause an error.
Example:
>>>str[14]
IndexError: string index out of range
>>> str[14:20] # both indices are outside the bounds
' ' # returns empty string
>>> str[10:16]
'ture'
Reason: When you use an index, you are accessing a particular character of a string, thus the index must
be valid and out of bounds index causes an error as there is no character to return from the given index.
But slicing always returns a substring or empty string, which is valid sequence.
8.5 Traversing a String:
Access the elements of string, one character at a time.
Each character of a string can be accessed either using a for loop or while loop.
Example: Accessing each character of a string using for loop.
str = “IIS DAMMAM”
for ch in str :
print(ch, '-' end= ' ')
Output: I - I - S - - D - A - M - M - A - M –
Example: Accessing each character of a string using while loop.
str = 'IIS DAMMAM'
index=0
while index < len(str):
print(str[index],'-',end= ' ')
index +=1
Output: I - I - S - - D - A - M - M - A - M –

4
 8.6 Built-in functions of string:
Example:
str=''data structure''
s1= ''hello365''
s2= ''python''
s3 = '4567'
s4 = ' '
s5= 'comp34%@'
s6='Hello World! Hello Hello'

S. No. Function Description Example

1 len( ) Returns the length of a string >>>print(len(str))
14
2 capitalize( ) Returns a string with its first >>> str.capitalize()
character 'Data structure'
capitalized.
3 title() Returns the string with the first letter of every >>> str.title()
word in uppercase and rest in lowercase. 'Data Structure'
4 count(str,start,end) Returns the number of times substring str s6='Hello World! Hello Hello'
occurs in the given string. >>>s6.count(‘Hello”, 12, 25)
If the start index is not given, it starts 2
searching from index 0. >>> s6.count(‘Hello’)
If end index is not given, it ends at length 3
of the string.
5 find(sub,start,end) Returns the lowest index in the string str=''data structure''
where thesubstring sub is found within the >>> str.find("ruct",5,13)
string range. 7
Returns -1 if sub is not found. >>> str.find("ruct",8,13)
-1
6 index(sub,start,end) Returns the lowest index in the string str=”data structure”
where thesubstring sub is found within the >>> str.find("ruct",5,13)7
string range. >>> str.find("ruct",8,13)
Raises an exception (ValueError) if the ValueError: substring not found
substring not found in the given string.
7 isalnum( ) True: If the characters in the string are >>>s1.isalnum( )
alphabets or numbers (without spaces). True
>>>s2.isalnum( )
False: If the characters in the string are True
empty string, white spaces or special >>>s3.isalnum( )
characters are part of the given string True
>>>s4.isalnum( )
False
>>>s5.isalnum( )
False

5
8 isalpha( ) True: If the characters in the string are only >>>s1.isalpha( )
alphabets (without spaces). False
>>>s2.isalpha( )
False: If the characters in the string are True
empty string, numeric values, white spaces or >>>s3.isalpha( )
special characters are part of the given string. False
>>>s4.isalpha( )
False
>>>s5.isalpha( )
False
9 isdigit( ) True: If the characters in the string are only >>>s1.isdigit( )
numbers (without spaces). False
>>>s2.isdigit( )
False: If the characters in the string are False
>>>s3.isdigit( )
empty string, alphabets, white spaces or
True
special characters are part of the given string. >>>s4.isdigit( )
False
>>>s5.isdigit( )
False
10 islower( ) True: If all the characters in the string are >>> s1.islower()
lowercase, alphabetic character in lowercase True
along with non-alphabet characters. >>> s2.islower()
True
>>> s3.islower()
False: Empty string, upper case alphabetic
False
string, numeric string, special characters string. >>> s4.islower()
False
>>> s5.islower()
True
11 isupper( ) True: If all the characters in the string are >>> s1.isupper()
uppercase, alphabetic character in uppercase False
along with non-alphabet characters. >>> s2.isupper()
False
>>> s3.isupper()
False: Empty string, lower case alphabetic
False
string, numeric string, special characters string.
>>> s4.isupper()
False
>>> s5.isupper()
False
12 isspace( ) True: If there are only white space characters >>> " ".isspace()
(space, tab, carriage return, new line) in the True
string. >>> "".isspace()
False: Alphabets, digits, alphanumeric, special False
characters
13 lower( ) Converts a string in lowercase characters. >>> "HeLlo".lower()
'hello'
14 upper( ) Converts a string in uppercase characters. >>> "hello".upper()
'HELLO'

6
 15 lstrip( ) Returns a string after removing the leading >>> str="data structure"
characters. (Left side). >>> str.lstrip('dat')
'structure'
If used without any argument, it removes >>> str.lstrip('data')
theleading whitespaces. 'structure'
>>> str.lstrip('at')
'data structure'
>>> str.lstrip('adt')
'structure'
>>> str.lstrip('tad')
'structure'
16 rstrip( ) Returns a string after removing the trailing >>> str.rstrip('eur')
characters. (Right side). 'data struct'
If used without any argument, it removes >>> str.rstrip('rut')
thetrailing whitespaces. 'data structure'
>>> str.rstrip('tucers')
'data '
17 strip() Returns a string after removing the trailing >>>'Hello! '.strip()
characters from both sides (left and right of 'Hello! '
the string).
18 replace(oldstr, newstr) Replaces all the occurrences of old string with >>>s6.replace('o', '*')
the new string. 'Hell* W*rld! '
>>>s6.replace('Hello', 'Bye')
'Bye World! Bye'
19 join() Returns a string in which the characters in the >>> s2= ''python''
string have been joined by as separator. >>>s7='-' #separator
>>>s2.join(s7)
'p-y-t-h-o-n'
20 startswith() True: If the given string starts with the >>>str.startswith('Data')
supplied substring. True
False: If the given string doesn’t start with the >>>str.startswith('! ')
supplied substring. False
21 endswith() True: If the given string end with the >>>str.endswith('e')
supplied substring. True
False: If the given string doesn’t end with the >>>str.startswith('!')
supplied substring. False
22 split( ) Breaks a string into words and creates a list >>> str="Data Structure"
out of it. >>>str.split('t')
['Da' , 'a S', 'ruc' , 'ure']
If no delimiter is given, then words are >>> str.split( )
separated by space. ['Data', 'Structure']
23 partition() Partition the given string at the first >>>st='India is a Great
occurrence of the substring (separator) and Country'
returns the string partitioned into three parts. >>>st.partition('is')
1. Substring before the separator ('India', 'is', ' a Great Country')
2. Separator >>>st.partition('are')
3. Substring after the separator ('India is a Great Country',
If the separator is not found in the string, it ' ',' ')
returns the whole string itself and two
empty strings.
7
 Exercise Programs – Page No: 188
Question 1:
Program: OUTPUT:
Str = input("Write a sentence: ")
total_length = len(Str) Write a sentence: Good Morning!
print("Total Characters: ", total_length) Total Characters: 13
total_Alpha = total_Digit = total_Special = 0 Total Alphabets: 11
for a in Str:
Total Digits: 0
if a.isalpha():
Total Special Characters: 2
total_Alpha += 1
elif a.isdigit(): Total Words in the Input: 2
total_Digit += 1
else:
total_Special += 1
print("Total Alphabets: ",total_Alpha)
print("Total Digits: ",total_Digit)
print("Total Special Characters: ",total_Special)
total_Space = 0
for b in Str:
if b.isspace():
total_Space += 1
print("Total Words in the Input :",(total_Space + 1))

Question 2:
ANSWER:
Program:
#Changing a string to title case using title() function
str=input("Enter the string:")
if str.istitle():
print("String is already in title case", str)
else:
new_str=str.title()
print("Original string is:", str)
print("New string after conversion to title case is:", new_str)

OUTPUT:
Enter the string: good evening!
Original string is: good evening!
New string after conversion to title case is: Good Evening!

Question 3:
ANSWER: We can write the program in two different ways:
I. Using replace() function
II. Without using replace() function
Program 1:
#Delete all occurrences of char from string using replace()function
str=input("Enter the string:")
char=input("Enter the character to remove from the string:")
res_str = str.replace(char, '')
print ("The string after removal of character", char, ": " + res_str)

OUTPUT:
Enter the string: Good Morning!
Enter the character to remove from the string: o
The string after removal of character o is: Gd Mrning!

8
Program 2:
#Delete all occurrences of char from string without using replace()function
str=input("Enter the string:")
char=input("Enter the character to remove from the string:")
newString = ''
#Looping through each character of string
for a in str:
#if character matches, replace it by empty string
if a == char:
#continue
newString += ''
else:
newString += a
print("The new string after deleting all occurrences of",char,"is: ",newString)

OUTPUT:
Enter the string: Good Morning!
Enter the character to remove from the string: o
The string after removal of character o is: Gd Mrning!

Question 4:
ANSWER:
Program:
str=input("Enter any string with digits:")
sum = 0
#sum all the digits
for a in str:
#Checking if a character is digit and adding it
if(a.isdigit()):
sum += int(a)
print("The sum of all digits in the string '",str,"' is:",sum)

OUTPUT:
Enter any string with digits: The cost of this table is Rs. 3450
The sum of all digits in the string ' The cost of this table is Rs. 3450 ' is: 12

Question 5:
ANSWER:
We can write the program in two different ways
I. Using replace() function
II. Without using replace() function

Method 1:
#replace all spaces with hyphen from string using replace()function.
str=input("Enter a sentence:")
new_str=str.replace(' ','-')
print("The new sentence is:",new_str)

OUTPUT:
Enter a sentence: Python has several built-in functions that allow us to work
with strings.
The new sentence is: Python-has-several-built-in-functions-that-allow-us-to-work-
with-strings.
9
Method 2:
#Replace all spaces with hyphen from string without using replace()function
Program:
str=input("Enter a sentence:")
newString = ''
#Looping through each character of string
for a in str:
#if char is space, replace it with hyphen
if a == ' ':
newString += '-'
#else leave the character as it is
else:
newString += a
#Printing the modified sentence
print("The new sentence is:",newString)

OUTPUT:
Enter a sentence: Python has several built-in functions that allow us to work
with strings.
The new sentence is: Python-has-several-built-in-functions-that-allow-us-to-work-
with-strings.

List of programs suggested by CBSE for String Manipulation.

1. Write a program to count no. of times a character occurs in a given string. (Th)
2. Write a program to replace all vowels with *. (Th)
3. Write a program to print the string in reverse order (Th)
4. Write a program that reads a string and checks whether it is a palindrome string or not.(Th, Pr)
5. Write a program to convert the case of characters. (Title, Alternate) (Th, Pr)
6. Write a program to count the number of vowels, consonants, uppercase, lowercase. (Th, Pr)
7. Write a program to count the number of alphabets, digits, special characters, and number of
words. (Th).

Note: Write 4th , 5th and 6th programs in Lab Record Book

ANSWERS
1. Write a program to count no. of times a character occurs in a given string. (Th)
We can write the program in two different ways
I. Using count() function
II. Without using count() function
Method 1: #count no. of times a character appear in a string using count()
function.
str=input("Enter a sentence:")
my_char=input("Enter a charcter to search for:")
new_str=str.count(my_char)
print("Number of times the character occurs:",new_str)

OUTPUT:
Enter a sentence: Hello
Enter a character to search for: l
Number of times the character occurs: 2

10
 Method 2:#count no. of times a character appear in a string without using
count() function.
str=input("Enter a sentence:") OUTPUT:
my_char=input("Enter a charcter to search for:") Enter a sentence: Hello world!
count=0 Enter a character to search for: o
for i in str: Number of times the character
if i== my_char: occurs: 2
count += 1
print("Number of times the character occurs:",count)

2. Write a program to replaces all vowels with *. (Th)

str=input("Enter a sentence:")
char='*'
vowels = ['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u', 'A', 'E', 'I', 'O', 'U']
new_str='' #empty string
for i in range(len(str)): OUTPUT:
if str[i] in vowels: Enter a sentence: welcome
new_str+=char Original string is: welcome
else: New string is: w*lc*m*
new_str+=str[i]
print("Original string is:", str)
print("New string is:", new_str)

3. Write a program to print the string in reverse order. (Th)

ANS: We can write the program in two different ways
I. Using slicing
II. Without using slicing
Method 1: #Reversed the string using slicing.
str=input("Enter a sentence:") OUTPUT:
str2=str[::-1] Enter a sentence: welcome
print("Reversed string is:", str2) Reversed string is: emocleW
Method 2: #Reversed the string without using slicing.
str=input("Enter a sentence:")
new_str='' #empty string
length=len(str)
for i in range(-1, -length-1, -1): OUTPUT:
new_str+=str[i] Enter a sentence: welcome
print("Original string is:", str) Reversed string is: emocleW
print("Reversed string is:", new_str)

4. Write a program that reads a string and checks whether it is a palindrome string or not.(Th, Pr)
str=input("Enter a sentence:")
n=len(str)
mid=n//2 OUTPUT:
rev=-1 Enter a sentence: madam
for i in range(mid): The given string madam is a palindrome
if str[i] == str[rev]:
i=i+1
rev=rev-1
print("The given string",str, "is a palindrome")
break
else:
print("The given string",str, "is not a palindrome")
break

11
5. Write a program to convert the case of characters. (Title, Alternate) (Th, Pr)
a.) #Changing a string to title case using title() function
str=input("Enter the string:")
if str.istitle():
print("String is already in title case:", str)
else:
new_str=str.title()
print("Original string is:", str)
print("New string after conversion to title case is:", new_str)

OUTPUT:
Enter the string: good evening!
Original string is: good evening!
New string after conversion to title case is: Good Evening!

b) #Converting the case of alternate character of the string. Or converting

the case of the even position character of the string.
str=input("Enter the string:")
new_str='' #empty string
length=len(str)
for i in range(0, len(str)):
if i%2==0: #checking the even positions
if str[i].isupper():
new_str+=str[i].lower()
else:
new_str+=str[i].upper()
else:
new_str+=str[i]
print("Resulted string is:", new_str)

OUTPUT:
Enter the string: hello world
Resulted string is: HeLlO WoRlD

c) #Converting the case of alternate character of the string. Or converting

the case of the odd position character of the string.
str=input("Enter the string:")
new_str='' #empty string
length=len(str)
for i in range(0, len(str)):
if i%2!=0: #checking the odd positions
if str[i].isupper():
new_str+=str[i].lower()
else:
new_str+=str[i].upper()
else:
new_str+=str[i]
print("Resulted string is:", new_str)

OUTPUT:
Enter the string: hello world
Resulted string is: hElLo wOrLd

12
6. Write a program to count number of vowels, consonants, uppercase, lowercase. (Th, Pr)
str=input("Enter the string:")
n_cons= n_vows=n_ucase=n_lcase=0
vowels = ['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u', 'A', 'E', 'I', 'O', 'U']
for ch in str:
if ch>='A' and ch<='Z':
n_ucase+=1
if ch>='a' and ch<='z':
n_lcase+=1
print("Number of upper-case letters in the given string is:", n_ucase)
print("Number of lower-case letters in the given string is:", n_lcase)
for i in range(len(str)):
if str[i] in vowels:
n_vows+=1
else:
n_cons+=1
print("Number of vowels in the given string is:", n_vows)
print("Number of consonants in the given string is:", n_cons)

OUTPUT:
Enter the string: hello world
Number of upper-case letters in the given string is: 0
Number of lower-case letters in the given string is: 10
Number of vowels in the given string is: 3
Number of consonants in the given string is: 8

7. Write a program to count the number of alphabets, digits, special characters, and number of
words. (Th)
Program:
Str = input("Write a sentence: ")
total_length = len(Str)
print("Total Characters: ", total_length)
total_Space = total_Alpha = total_Digit = total_Special = 0
for a in Str:
if a.isalpha():
total_Alpha += 1
elif a.isdigit():
total_Digit += 1
else:
total_Special += 1
print("Total Alphabets: ",total_Alpha)
print("Total Digits: ",total_Digit)
print("Total Special Characters: ",total_Special)
for b in Str:
if b.isspace():
total_Space += 1
print("Total Words in the Input :",(total_Space + 1))

OUTPUT:
Write a sentence: Good Morning!
Total Characters: 13
Total Alphabets: 11
Total Digits: 0
Total Special Characters: 2
Total Words in the Input: 2

13