Strings

Chapter 6

Python for Everybody

[Link]
 >>> str1 = "Hello"
String Data Type >>> str2 = 'there'
>>> bob = str1 + str2
>>> print(bob)
• A string is a sequence of characters Hellothere
>>> str3 = '123'
• A string literal uses quotes >>> str3 = str3 + 1
'Hello' or "Hello" Traceback (most recent call
last): File "<stdin>", line 1,
• For strings, + means “concatenate” in <module>
TypeError: cannot concatenate
• When a string contains numbers, it is 'str' and 'int' objects
still a string >>> x = int(str3) + 1
>>> print(x)
124
• We can convert numbers in a string
>>>
into a number using int()
 Reading and >>> name = input('Enter:')
Enter:Chuck
Converting >>> print(name)
Chuck
>>> apple = input('Enter:')
• We prefer to read data in using
Enter:100
strings and then parse and
>>> x = apple – 10
convert the data as we need
Traceback (most recent call
last): File "<stdin>", line 1,
• This gives us more control over
in <module>
error situations and/or bad user
TypeError: unsupported operand
input
type(s) for -: 'str' and 'int'
>>> x = int(apple) – 10
• Input numbers must be
>>> print(x)
converted from strings
90
 String Concatenation
>>> a = 'Hello'
>>> b = a + 'There'
When the + operator is >>> print(b)
applied to strings, it means HelloThere
“concatenation” >>> c = a + ' ' + 'There'
>>> print(c)
Hello There
>>>
 Looking Inside Strings
• We can get at any single character in a b a n a n a
string using an index specified in 0 1 2 3 4 5
square brackets
>>> fruit = 'banana'
• The index value must be an integer
>>>
>>>
letter = fruit[1]
print(letter)
and starts at zero a
>>> x = 3
• The index value can be an expression >>> w = fruit[x - 1]
that is computed >>> print(w)
n
 A Character Too Far
• You will get a python error >>> zot = 'abc'
>>> print(zot[5])
if you attempt to index Traceback (most recent call
beyond the end of a string last): File "<stdin>", line
1, in <module>
• So be careful when IndexError: string index out
constructing index values of range
and slices >>>
 Looping and Counting
word = 'banana'
This is a simple loop that count = 0
loops through each letter in a for letter in word :
string and counts the number if letter == 'a' :
of times the loop encounters count = count + 1
the 'a' character print(count)
More String Operations
Slicing Strings M o n t y P y t h o n
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
• We can also look at any
continuous section of a string
using a colon operator >>> s = 'Monty Python'
>>> print(s[0:4])
• The second number is one Mont
beyond the end of the slice - >>> print(s[6:7])
“up to but not including” P
>>> print(s[6:20])
• If the second number is
Python
beyond the end of the string,
it stops at the end
Slicing Strings M o n t y P y t h o n
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

>>> s = 'Monty Python'

If we leave off the first number >>> print(s[:2])
or the last number of the slice, Mo
it is assumed to be the >>> print(s[8:])
beginning or end of the string thon
respectively >>> print(s[:])
Monty Python
Using in as a Logical Operator
>>> fruit = 'banana'
• The in keyword can also be >>> 'n' in fruit
used to check to see if one True
string is “in” another string >>> 'm' in fruit
False
• The in expression is a
>>> 'nan' in fruit
True
logical expression that >>> if 'a' in fruit :
returns True or False and ... print('Found it!')
can be used in an if ...
statement Found it!
>>>
 String Comparison
word = input("Enter your String")
if word == 'banana':
print('All right, bananas.’)
----------------------------------------------------------
word = input("Enter your String")
if word < 'banana':
print('Your word,' + word + ', comes before banana.')
elif word > 'banana':
print('Your word,' + word + ', comes after banana.')
else:
print('All right, bananas.')
• Python has a number of string String Library
functions which are in the
string library
>>> greet = 'Hello Bob'
• These functions are already >>> zap = [Link]()
built into every string - we >>> print(zap)
invoke them by appending the hello bob
function to the string variable >>> print(greet)
Hello Bob
• These functions do not modify >>> print('Hi There'.lower())
the original string, instead they hi there
return a new string that has >>>
been altered
 Strings Have Length

b a n a n a
The built-in function len gives 0 1 2 3 4 5
us the length of a string
>>> fruit = 'banana'
>>> print(len(fruit))
6
>>> stuff = 'Hello world'
>>> type(stuff)
<class 'str'>
>>> dir(stuff)
['capitalize', 'casefold', 'center', 'count', 'encode',
'endswith', 'expandtabs', 'find', 'format', 'format_map',
'index', 'isalnum', 'isalpha', 'isdecimal', 'isdigit',
'isidentifier', 'islower', 'isnumeric', 'isprintable', 'isspace',
'istitle', 'isupper', 'join', 'ljust', 'lower', 'lstrip',
'maketrans', 'partition', 'replace', 'rfind', 'rindex', 'rjust',
'rpartition', 'rsplit', 'rstrip', 'split', 'splitlines',
'startswith', 'strip', 'swapcase', 'title', 'translate', 'upper',
'zfill']

[Link]
 String Library
[Link]() [Link](old, new[, count])
[Link](width[, fillchar]) [Link]()
[Link](suffix[, start[, end]]) [Link]([chars])
[Link](sub[, start[, end]]) [Link]([chars])
[Link]([chars]) [Link]()
Searching a String
b a n a n a
• We use the find() function to search
for a substring within another string
0 1 2 3 4 5

• find() finds the first occurrence of the >>> fruit = 'banana'

substring >>> pos = [Link]('na')
>>> print(pos)
• If the substring is not found, find() 2
returns -1 >>> aa = [Link]('z')
>>> print(aa)
• Remember that string position starts -1
at zero
 Making everything UPPER CASE
• You can make a copy of a >>> greet = 'Hello Bob'
string in lower case or upper >>> nnn = [Link]()
case >>> print(nnn)
• Often when we are searching
HELLO BOB
>>> www = [Link]()
for a string using find() we first
>>> print(www)
convert the string to lower case
hello bob
so we can search a string
>>>
regardless of case
 Search and Replace
• The replace() function
is like a “search and >>> greet = 'Hello Bob'
replace” operation in a >>> nstr = [Link]('Bob','Jane')
>>> print(nstr)
word processor Hello Jane

• It replaces all
>>> nstr = [Link]('o','X')
>>> print(nstr)
occurrences of the HellX BXb
search string with the >>>
replacement string
 Stripping Whitespace
• Sometimes we want to take
a string and remove
whitespace at the beginning >>> greet = ' Hello Bob '
>>> [Link]()
and/or end
'Hello Bob '
• lstrip() and rstrip() remove
>>> [Link]()
' Hello Bob'
whitespace at the left or right >>> [Link]()
'Hello Bob'
• strip() removes both >>>
beginning and ending
whitespace
 Prefixes
>>> line = 'Please have a nice day'
>>> [Link]('Please')
True
>>> [Link]('p')
False
 Parsing and
21 31 Extracting
From [Link]@[Link] Sat Jan 5 [Link] 2008

>>> data = 'From [Link]@[Link] Sat Jan 5 [Link] 2008'

>>> atpos = [Link]('@')
>>> print(atpos)
21
>>> sppos = [Link](' ',atpos)
>>> print(sppos)
31
>>> host = data[atpos+1 : sppos]
>>> print(host)
[Link]
 Summary
• String type • String operations
• Read/Convert • String library
• Indexing strings [] • String comparisons
• Slicing strings [2:4] • Searching in strings
• Looping through strings • Replacing text
with for and while • Stripping white space
• Concatenating strings with +
 Acknowledgements / Contributions
These slides are Copyright 2010- Charles R. Severance ...
([Link]) of the University of Michigan School of
Information and [Link] and made available under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Please maintain this
last slide in all copies of the document to comply with the
attribution requirements of the license. If you make a change,
feel free to add your name and organization to the list of
contributors on this page as you republish the materials.

Initial Development: Charles Severance, University of Michigan

School of Information

… Insert new Contributors and Translators here