Cairo University

Faculty of Graduate Studies for Statistical Research

Department of Computer and Information Sciences

Computer Sys. And Programming

Lec. 6 outline: You’ll find all the information you need here on
Sequences: Strings, String Assignment, Concatenation, and
Comparisons, Data Encryption, Data Decryption, Files, os Functions
, ….and ….
Tarek Aly
01126182476
http://41.32.221.109:8080/DrTarekAly.htm
E-mail: tarekmmmmt@{pg.cu.edu.eg; egyptpost.org; gmail.com; yahoo.com}
Contents
 Sequences: Strings
 String Assignment, Concatenation, and Comparisons
 Positions or Indexes
 Traversing with a for Loop
 The Subscript Operator
 Oddball Indexes
 Slicing Strings
 String Methods
 The Basic ASCII Character Set
 Data Encryption
 Data Decryption
 Files
 Text Files
 File Input
 File Output
 Managing Directories
 os Functions
10/2/2023 Computer Sys. And Programming
 Sequences
 Sequences are collections of data values that are
ordered by position

 A string is a sequence of characters

 A list is a sequence of any Python data values

 A tuple is like a list but cannot be modified

Examples
a = 'apple'
b = 'banana'
print(a, b) # Displays apple banana

fruits = (a, b) # A tuple

print(fruits) # Displays ('apple', 'banana')

veggies = ['bean', 'lettuce'] # A list

print(veggies) # Displays ['bean', 'lettuce']

Strings contain characters

Tuples and lists can contain anything

String Assignment,
Concatenation, and Comparisons

a = 'apple'
b = 'banana'
print(a + b) # Displays applebanana
print(a == b) # Displays False
print(a < b) # Displays True

Strings can be ordered like they are in a dictionary

Positions or Indexes

'Hi there!' H i t h e r e !
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Each character in a string has a unique position called its index

We count indexes from 0 to the length of the string minus 1

A for loop automatically visits each character in the string,

from beginning to end
for ch in 'Hi there!': print(ch)
Traversing with a for Loop

'Hi there!' H i t h e r e !
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

A for loop automatically visits each character in the string,

from beginning to end

for ch in 'Hi there!': print(ch, end = '')

# Prints Hi there!
Summing with Strings

'Hi there!' H i t h e r e !
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Start with an empty string and add characters to it with +

noVowels = ''
for ch in 'Hi there!':
if not ch in ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u',
'A', 'E', 'I', 'O', 'U'):
noVowels += ch
print(noVowels)

# Prints H thr!
The Subscript Operator

'Hi there!' H i t h e r e !
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Alternatively, any character can be accessed using the subscript
operator []

This operator expects an int from 0 to the length of the string

minus 1

Example: 'Hi there!'[0] # equals 'H'

Syntax: <a string>[<an int>]

The len Function

'Hi there!' H i t h e r e !
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

The len function returns the

length of any sequence
>>> len('Hi there!')
9

>>> s = 'Hi there!'

>>> s[len(s) - 1]
'!'
An Index-Based Loop

'Hi there!' H i t h e r e !
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

If you need the positions during a loop, use the subscript

operator
s = 'Hi there!'

for ch in s: print(ch)

for i in range(len(s)): print(i, s[i])

Oddball Indexes

'Hi there!' H i t h e r e !
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

To get to the last character in a string:

s = 'Hi there!'

print(s[len(s) - 1]) # Displays !

Oddball Indexes

'Hi there!' H i t h e r e !
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

To get to the last character in a string:

s = 'Hi there!'
A negative index counts
print(s[len(s) - 1]) backward from the last position
# or, believe it or not, in a sequence
print(s[-1])
Slicing Strings
Extract a portion of a string (a substring)
s = 'Hi there!'

print(s[0:]) # Displays Hi there!

print(s[1:]) # Displays i there!

print(s[:2]) # Displays Hi (two characters)

print(s[0:2]) # Displays Hi (two characters)

The number to the right of : equals one plus the

index of the last character in the substring
String Methods
s = 'Hi there!'

print(s.find('there')) # Displays 3

print(s.upper()) # Displays HI THERE!

print(s.replace('e', 'a')) # Displays Hi thara!

print(s.split()) # Displays ['Hi', 'there!']

A method is like a function, but the syntax for its use is

different:
<a string>.<method name>(<any arguments>)
String Methods

s = 'Hi there!'

print(s.split()) # Displays ['Hi', 'there!']

A sequence of items in [ ] is a Python list

Characters in Computer
Memory

 Each character translates to a unique

integer called its ASCII value (American
Standard for Information Interchange)

 Basic ASCII ranges from 0 to 127, for 128

keyboard characters and some control
keys
 The Basic ASCII Character Set

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
0 NUL SOH STX ETX EOT ENQ ACK BEL BS HT
1 LF VT FF CR SO SI DLE DC1 DC2 DC3
2 DC4 NAK SYN ETB CAN EM SUB ESC FS GS
3 RS US SP ! " # $ % & `
4 ( ) * + , - . / 0 1
5 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ;
6 < = > ? @ A B C D E
7 F G H I J K L M N O
8 P Q R S T U V W X Y
9 Z [ \ ] ^ _ ' a b c
10 d e f g h i j k l m
11 n o p q r s t u v w
12 x y z { | } ~ DEL
The ord and chr Functions
ord converts a single-character string to its ASCII value

chr converts an ASCII value to a single-character string

print(ord('A')) # Displays 65

print(chr(65)) # Displays A

for ascii in range(128): # Display 'em all

print(ascii, chr(ascii))
Data Encryption
A really simple (and quite lame) encryption algorithm
replaces each character with its ASCII value and a space

source = "I won't be here!"

code = ""
for ch in source:
code = code + str(ord(ch)) + " "
print(code)

# Displays 73 32 119 111 110 39 116 32 98 101 32 104 101 33

Data Decryption
To decrypt an encoded message, we split it into a list of
substrings and convert these ASCII values to the original
characters

source = ""
for ascii in code.split():
source = source + chr(int(ascii))
print(source) # Displays I won't be here!
Files
Data Storage
 Data (and programs) are loaded into
primary memory (RAM) for
processing

 From where?
 From input devices (keyboard,
microphone)
 From secondary memory - a hard disk, a
flash stick, a CD, or a DVD
Primary and Secondary Storage
Integrated Hard disk
circuits on CD
wafer-thin DVD
chips Flash

Primary Processor Secondary

Memory (RAM) memory

Very fast Slower

Expensive I/O devices Cheaper

Transient Keyboard Permanent

Mouse
Microphone
Monitor
Speakers
What Is a File?

 A file is a software object that allows a

program to represent and access data
stored in secondary memory

 Two basic types of files:

 Text files: for storing and accessing text
(characters)
 Binary files: executable programs and their
data files (such as images, sound clips, video)
Text Files

 A text file is logically a sequence of

characters

 Basic operations are

 input (read characters from the file)
 output (write characters to the file)

 There are several flavors of each type of

operation
File Input

 We want to bring text in from a file for

processing

 Three steps:
 Open the file for input
 Read the text and save it in a variable
 Process the text
Opening a File
<a variable> = open(<a file name>, <a flag>)

<a flag> can be

'r' - used for input, to read from an existing file

'w' - used for output, to overwrite an existing file

'a' - used for output, to append to an existing file

Example: Read Text from a File
filename = input('Enter a file name: ')

myfile = open(filename, 'r')

text = myfile.read()

print(text)

The file name must either be in the current directory or

be a pathname to a file in a directory

Python raises an error if the file is not found

text refers to one big string

Read Lines of Text from a File

filename = input('Enter a file name: ')

myfile = open(filename, 'r')

for line in myfile:

print(line)

The variable line picks up the next line of text on

each pass through the loop

line will contain the newline character, so the echo

will print extra blank lines
Read Lines of Text from a File
filename = input('Enter a file name: ')
myfile = open(filename, 'r')

for line in myfile:

print(line[:-1])

Extract a substring up to but not including the last

character (the newline)

This will produce an exact echo of the input file

Alternatively, Use readline

filename = input('Enter a file name: ')

myfile = open(filename, 'r')

while True:
line = myfile.readline()
if line == '':
break
print(line[:-1])

The readline method reads a line of text and

returns it as a string, including the newline character

This method returns the empty string if the end of file

is encountered
Count the Words
filename = input('Enter a file name: ')
myfile = open(filename, 'r')
wordcount = 0

for line in myfile:

wordcount += len(line.split())

print('The word count is', wordcount)

File Output

 We want to save data to a text file

 Four steps:
 Open the file for output
 Covert the data to strings, if necessary
 Write the strings to the file
 Close the file
Example: Write Text to a File
filename = input('Enter a file name: ')

myfile = open(filename, 'w')

myfile.write('Two lines\nof text')

myfile.close()

If the file already exists, it is overwritten; otherwise, it

is created in the current directory or path

The write method expects a string as an argument

Failure to close the file can result in losing data

Example: Write Integers to a File
filename = input('Enter a file name: ')

myfile = open(filename, 'w')

for i in range(1, 11):

myfile.write(str(i) + '\n')

myfile.close()

write can be called 0 or more times

Data values must be converted to strings before output

Separators, such as newlines or spaces, must be explicitly

written as well
Managing Directories
 Directories are organized in a tree-like structure

 Python’s os module includes many functions for

navigating through a directory system and managing it
D

D F F F D F

F F F D F

F F
os Functions
Function What It Does
os.getcwd() Returns the current working directory (string)

os.chdir(path) Attaches to the directory specified by path

os.listdir(path) Returns a list of the directory’s contents

os.remove(name) Removes a file at path

os.rename(old, new) Resets the old path to the new one

os.removedirs(path) Removes the directory (and all subdirectories)

at path
os.path Functions
Function What It Does
os.path.exists(path) Returns True if path exists or False
otherwise.
os.path.isdir(path) Returns True if path names a directory or
False otherwise.
os.path.isfile(path) Returns True if path names a file or
False otherwise.
os.path.getsize(path) Returns the size of the object named by
path in bytes.
Example: Does the File Exist?

import os.path

filename = input('Enter a file name: ')

if not os.path.exists(filename):
print('Error: the file not not exist!')
else:
myfile = open(filename, 'r')
print(myfile.read())
myfile.close()
Thank You

Let's get started!

2023-12-06 Computer Sys. And Programming