Strings

Strings in python are surrounded by either single quotation marks, or double

quotation marks.

'hello' is the same as "hello".

You can display a string literal with the print() function:

Example:
print("Hello")
print('Hello')
Hello
Hello

Quotes Inside Quotes

You can use quotes inside a string, as long as they don't match the quotes
surrounding the string:

Example:
print("It's alright")
print("He is called 'Johnny'")
print('He is called "Johnny"')

It's alright
He is called 'Johnny'
He is called "Johnny"
Assign String to a Variable
Assigning a string to a variable is done with the variable name followed by an
equal sign and the string:

Example:

a = "Hello"
print(a)

Hello

Multiline Strings
You can assign a multiline string to a variable by using three quotes:

Example
You can use three double quotes:

a = """Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliqua."""
print(a)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Or
three single quotes:
xample:

a = '''Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'''
print(a)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Strings are Arrays

Example:
Get the character at position 1 (remember that the first character has
the position 0):

a = "Hello, World!"
print(a[1])

Looping Through a String

Since strings are arrays, we can loop through the characters in a string, with a
for loop.
Example
Loop through the letters in the word "banana":

for x in "banana":
print(x)
b
a
n
a
n
a

String Length
To get the length of a string, use the len() function.

Example
The len() function returns the length of a string:
a = "Hello, World!"
print(len(a))

13

Check String
To check if a certain phrase or character is present in a string, we can use the
keyword in.

Example
Check if "free" is present in the following text:

txt = "The best things in life are free!"

print("free" in txt)

True
Use it in an if statement:

Example
Print only if "free" is present:

txt = "The best things in life are free!"

if "free" in txt:
print("Yes, 'free' is present.")

Yes, 'free' is present.

Check if NOT
To check if a certain phrase or character is NOT present in a string, we can use
the keyword not in.

Example
Check if "expensive" is NOT present in the following text:

txt = "The best things in life are free!"

print("expensive" not in txt)

True

Use it in an if statement:

Example
print only if "expensive" is NOT present:

txt = "The best things in life are free!"

if "expensive" not in txt:
print("No, 'expensive' is NOT present.")

No, 'expensive' is NOT present.

Slicing Strings
Slicing
You can return a range of characters by using the slice syntax.

Specify the start index and the end index, separated by a colon, to return a part
of the string.

Example
Get the characters from position 2 to position 5 (not included):

b = "Hello, World!"
print(b[2:5])

llo

Note: The first character has index 0.

Slice From the Start

By leaving out the start index, the range will start at the first character:

Example
Get the characters from the start to position 5 (not included):

b = "Hello, World!"
print(b[:5])

Hello

Slice To the End

By leaving out the end index, the range will go to the end:

Example
Get the characters from position 2, and all the way to the end:

b = "Hello, World!"
print(b[2:])

llo, World!

Negative Indexing
Use negative indexes to start the slice from the end of the string:
Example
Get the characters:
From: "o" in "World!" (position -5)
To, but not included: "d" in "World!" (position -2):

b = "Hello, World!"
print(b[-5:-2])

orl

Modify Strings
Upper Case
Example
The upper() method returns the string in upper case:

a = "Hello, World!"
print(a.upper())

HELLO, WORLD!
Lower Case
Example
The lower() method returns the string in lower case:

a = "Hello, World!"
print(a.lower())

hello, world!

Remove Whitespace
Whitespace is the space before and/or after the actual text, and very often you
want to remove this space.

Example
The strip() method removes any whitespace from the beginning or the end:

a = " Hello, World! "

print(a.strip()) # returns "Hello, World!"

Hello, World!

Replace String
Example
The replace() method replaces a string with another string:

a = "Hello, World!"
print(a.replace("H", "J"))

Jello, World!
Split String
The split() method returns a list where the text between the specified
separator becomes the list items.

Example
The split() method splits the string into substrings if it finds
instances of the separator:
a = "Hello, World!"
print(a.split(",")) # returns ['Hello', ' World!']

['Hello', ' World!']

String Concatenation
String Concatenation
To concatenate, or combine, two strings you can use the + operator.

Example
Merge variable a with variable b into variable c:
a = "Hello"
b = "World"
c = a + b
print(c)

HelloWorld

Example
To add a space between them, add a " ":
a = "Hello"
b = "World"
c = a + " " + b
print(c)

Hello World
String Format
As we learned in the Python Variables chapter, we cannot combine strings and
numbers like this:

Example
age = 36
txt = "My name is John, I am " + age
print(txt)

F-Strings
F-String was introduced in Python 3.6, and is now the preferred way of
formatting strings.

To specify a string as an f-string, simply put an f in front of the string literal,

and add curly brackets {} as placeholders for variables and other operations.

Example
Create an f-string:
age = 36
txt = f"My name is John, I am {age}"
print(txt)

My name is John, I am 36

Placeholders and Modifiers

A placeholder can contain variables, operations, functions, and modifiers to
format the value.
Example
Add a placeholder for the price variable:

price = 59
txt = f"The price is {price} dollars"
print(txt)

The price is 59 dollars

A placeholder can include a modifier to format the value.

A modifier is included by adding a colon : followed by a legal formatting type,

like .2f which means fixed point number with 2 decimals:

Example
Display the price with 2 decimals:
price = 59
txt = f"The price is {price:.2f} dollars"
print(txt)

The price is 59.00 dollars

Escape Characters
Other escape characters used in Python:

Code Result

\' Single Quote

\\ Backslash

\n New Line

\r Carriage Return

\t Tab

\b Backspace

\f Form Feed

\ooo Octal value

\xhh Hex value

String Methods
Python has a set of built-in methods that you can use on strings.
Note: All string methods return new values. They do not change the original string.

Method Description

capitalize Converts the first character to upper case

()

casefold( Converts string into lower case

)

center() Returns a centered string

count() Returns the number of times a specified value occurs in a string

encode() Returns an encoded version of the string

endswith Returns true if the string ends with the specified value
()

expandta Sets the tab size of the string

bs()
find() Searches the string for a specified value and returns the position
of where it was found

format() Formats specified values in a string

format_ Formats specified values in a string

map()

index() Searches the string for a specified value and returns the position
of where it was found

isalnum( Returns True if all characters in the string are alphanumeric

)

isalpha() Returns True if all characters in the string are in the alphabet

isascii() Returns True if all characters in the string are ascii characters

isdecimal Returns True if all characters in the string are decimals

()

isdigit() Returns True if all characters in the string are digits

isidentifi Returns True if the string is an identifier
er()

islower() Returns True if all characters in the string are lower case

isnumeri Returns True if all characters in the string are numeric

c()

isprintabl Returns True if all characters in the string are printable

e()

isspace() Returns True if all characters in the string are whitespaces

istitle() Returns True if the string follows the rules of a title

isupper() Returns True if all characters in the string are upper case

join() Joins the elements of an iterable to the end of the string

ljust() Returns a left justified version of the string

lower() Converts a string into lower case

lstrip() Returns a left trim version of the string

maketra Returns a translation table to be used in translations

ns()

partition( Returns a tuple where the string is parted into three parts
)

replace() Returns a string where a specified value is replaced with a

specified value

rfind() Searches the string for a specified value and returns the last
position of where it was found

rindex() Searches the string for a specified value and returns the last
position of where it was found

rjust() Returns a right justified version of the string

rpartition Returns a tuple where the string is parted into three parts
()

rsplit() Splits the string at the specified separator, and returns a list
rstrip() Returns a right trim version of the string

split() Splits the string at the specified separator, and returns a list

splitlines Splits the string at line breaks and returns a list

()

startswit Returns true if the string starts with the specified value
h()

strip() Returns a trimmed version of the string

swapcas Swaps cases, lower case becomes upper case and vice versa
e()

title() Converts the first character of each word to upper case

translate Returns a translated string

()

upper() Converts a string into upper case

zfill() Fills the string with a specified number of 0 values at the
beginning