Strings
Strings are sequences of characters. Strings can contain alphabets, numbers and
some special characters.
Strings can be created by enclosing characters inside a single quote or double-
quotes.
Example:
S= ‘hello’
a= “python programming”
Multiple lines can be done using python’s triple quotes. It is also used for long
comments in code. Special characters like TABs, NEWLINEs can also be used
within the triple quotes. We can use either triple single or double quotes.
Example:
str='''python is an interpreted language,
python is dynamic typed language,
python is user friendly language'''
print(str)
output:
python is an interpreted language,
python is dynamic typed language,
python is user friendly language
Examples:
my_string = 'Hello'
print(my_string)
my_string = "Hello"
print(my_string)
my_string = '''Hello'''
print(my_string)
# triple quotes string can extend multiple lines
my_string = """Hello, welcome to
the world of Python"""
print(my_string)
When you run the program, the output will be:
Hello
Hello
Hello
Hello, welcome to
the world of Python
Accessing characters in Python:
• We can access the individual characters in a string through indexing.
• The positions in a string are numbered from the left, starting with 0.
>>>txt= ‘Hello World’
>>>txt[6]
‘W’
• In a string of n characters, the last character is at position n-1 since we
start counting with 0.
String Slicing:
We can also access a contiguous sequence of characters, called a substring,
through a process called slicing
• Slicing:
<string>[<start>:<end>]
• start and end should both be integers
• The slice contains the substring beginning at position start and runs up to
but doesn’t include the position end.
>>>s[2:7] # starting at 2, up to but not including 7
llo W
>>>s[6:10]
Worl
Slice from start: By leaving out the start index the range will start at the first
character
>>>s[:5]
Hello
>>>s[:7]
Hello W
Slice to end: By leaving out the end index, the range will go to the end
>>>s[6:]
World
>>>s[2:]
llo World
Negative Indexing:
• As an alternative, Python supports using negative numbers to index into a
string: -1 means the last char, -2 is the next to last, and so on. We can
index from the right side using negative indexes
H e l l o W o r l d
-11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1
>>>txt= ‘Hello World’
>>>txt[-4]
‘o’
>>>txt[-5]
‘W’
>>>txt[-5:-1]
Worl
>>>txt[-5:]
World
>>>txt[:-1]
Hello Worl
>>>txt[-5:-2]
Wor
>>>txt[:-4] #slice from start to -3(-4 not included)
Hello W
>>>txt[-5:] #begin slice with -5 to the end
World
#Accessing string characters in Python
str = 'GITAM University'
print('str = ', str)
#first character
print('str[0] = ', str[0])
#last character
print('str[-1] = ', str[-1])
#slicing 2nd to 5th character
print('str[1:5] = ', str[1:5])
#slicing 6th to 2nd last character
print('str[5:-2] = ', str[5:-2])
When we run the above program, we get the following output:
str = GITAM University
str[0] = G
str[-1] = y
str[1:5] = ITAM
str[5:-2] = Universi
Modify/Delete a String in Python
Strings are immutable. It suggests that once a String binds to a variable, it can’t
be modified. In other words, This means that elements of a string cannot be
changed once they have been assigned. We can simply reassign different strings
to the same [Link] you want to update the String, then re-assign a new String
value to the same variable.
>>> my_string = 'GITAM'
>>> my_string[3] = 'a'
...
TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment
>>> my_string = 'Python'
>>> my_string
'Python'
Similarly, we cannot modify the Strings by deleting some characters from it.
Instead, we can remove the Strings altogether by using the ‘del’ command.
str1 = "Python"
del str1[1]
# TypeError: 'str' object doesn't support item deletion
del str1
print(str1)
# NameError: name ‘str1' is not defined
Operations on strings
Assume string variable a holds 'Gitam' and variable b holds 'University', then −
Operator Description Example
+ Concatenation - Adds values on either side of the a + b will give
operator GitamUniversity
* Repetition - Creates new strings, concatenating a*2 will give -
multiple copies of the same string GitamGitam
[] Slice - Gives the character from the given index a[1] will give i
[:] Range Slice - Gives the characters from the given a[1:4] will give
range ita
in Membership - Returns true if a character exists in the ‘t’ in a will give
given string True
not in Membership - Returns true if a character does not exist ‘B’ not in a will
in the given string give True
Examples:
Concatenation of Two or More Strings: Joining of two or more strings into a
single one is called concatenation. The + operator does this in Python. Simply
writing two string literals together also concatenates them.
str1 = 'Hello'
str2 ='World!'
# using +
print('str1 + str2 = ', str1 + str2)
When we run the above program, we get the following output:
str1 + str2 = HelloWorld!
Writing two string literals together also concatenates them like + operator.
If we want to concatenate strings in different lines, we can use parentheses.
>>> # two string literals together
>>> 'Hello ''World!'
'Hello World!'
>>> # using parentheses
>>> s = ('Hello '
... 'World')
>>> s='Hello World'
[Link] : The * operator can be used to repeat the string for a given
number of times.
str1 = 'Hello'
# using *
print('str1 * 3 =', str1 * 3)
When we run the above program, we get the following output:
str1 * 3 = HelloHelloHello
String Methods:
Strings are amongst the most popular types in Python. We can create them simply
by enclosing characters in quotes. Python treats single quotes the same as double
quotes.
1. capitalize()- capitalize first letter in the string
str='hello'
print([Link]())
Hello
2. len()- Returns the length of string
str='hello'
print(len(str))
5
3. count(str) - return no of times str occurs in a string
str='hello'
print([Link]('l'))
4. upper()- converts all characters in the string into uppercase
str='Hello'
print([Link]())
HELLO
5. lower()- converts all characters in the string into lowercase
str='Hello'
print([Link]())
hello
6. swapcase()- upper case character becomes lowercase and viceversa
str='Hello'
print([Link]())
hELLO
7. endswith()- returns True if the string ends with the specified value,
otherwise False.
txt = "Hello, welcome to my world."
x = [Link]("my world.")
print(x)
True
8. startswith() - returns True if the string starts with the specified value,
otherwise False.
txt = "Hello, welcome to my world."
x = [Link]("Hello.")
print(x)
False
9. find()- finds the first occurrence of the specified value and returns -1 if
the value is not found.
txt = "Hello, welcome to my world."
x = [Link]("welcome")
print(x)
10. index()- finds the first occurrence of the specified value and raises an
exception if the value is not found.
txt = "Hello, welcome to my world."
print([Link]("q"))
print([Link]("q"))
Output:-1
ValueError: substring not found
11. replace() - replaces a specified phrase with another specified phrase.
txt = "one plus one is two and one multipy one is one"
x = [Link]("one", "three")
print(x)
output: three plus three is two and three multipy three is three
txt = "one plus one is two and one multipy one is one"
x = [Link]("one", "three",2)
print(x)
Output: three plus three is two and one multipy one is one
12. rfind()-finds the last occurrence of the specified value, returns -1 if the
value is not found.
txt = "Hello, welcome to my world."
x = [Link]("e")
print(x)
output:13
13. islower()- returns True if all the characters are in lower case, otherwise
False.
txt = "hello world!"
x = [Link]()
print(x)
True
14. isupper() - returns True if all the characters are in upper case,
otherwise False.
txt = "hello world!"
x = [Link]()
print(x)
False
15. isdigit() - returns True if all the characters are digits, otherwise False.
txt = "50800"
x = [Link]()
print(x)
True
[Link]()- Returns true if string has at least 1 character and all characters are
alphabetic and false otherwise.
str = "Hello!welcome"
result=[Link]()
True
[Link]() -Returns true if string has at least 1 character and all characters are
alphanumeric and false otherwise.
str = "Hello!welcome"
result=[Link]()
True
18. title()- This method returns a copy of the string in which first characters of a
ll the words are capitalized.
str = "this is string example....wow!!!"
print([Link]())
output: This Is String Example....Wow!!!
[Link]() – This method is used to swap the case of all the case-based cha
racters present in a string. That is, the lowercase characters in the string will be
converted into uppercase characters and vice-versa.
str = "This is string example....WOW!!!"
print([Link]())
output: tHIS IS STRING EXAMPLE....wow!!!
20. strip() – remove all the specified leading and trailing characters from the be
ginning and the end of a string
str = "8888this is string example....wow!!!888"
print([Link]('8'))
output:
this is string example....wow!!!
21. lstrip() – strips all the specified characters in a string from the beginning.
str = "8888this is string example....wow!!!888"
print([Link]('8'))
output:
this is string example....wow!!!888
[Link]() – remove all the specified characters in a string from the right (i.e. e
nding).
str = "8888this is string example....wow!!!888"
print([Link]('8'))
output:
8888this is string example....wow!!!
23. max(str) - Returns the max alphabetical character from the string str.
str = "this is really a string example"
print(max(str))
output: y
24. min(str) - Returns the min alphabetical character from the string str.
str = "example"
print(min(str))
output: a
