Strings
String literals 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
print("Hello")
print('Hello')
Multiline Strings
You can assign a multiline string to a variable by using three quotes
You can use three singe or double quotes
a = """Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliqua."""
print(a)
Strings are Arrays
Like many other popular programming languages, strings in Python are arrays
of bytes representing unicode characters.
However, Python does not have a character data type, a single character is
simply a string with a length of 1.
Square brackets can be used to access elements of the string
Get the character at position 1 (remember that the first character has the position
0
a = "Hello, World!"
print(a[1])
Strings 1
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
Get the characters from position 2 to position 5 (not included):
b = "Hello, World!"
print(b[::]) #starting index, ending index-1
Use negative indexes to start the slice from the end of the string
Get the characters from position 5 to position 1 (not included), starting the count
from the end of the string:
b = "Hello, World!"
print(b[-5:-2])
String Methods
Python has a set of built-in methods that you can use on strings
The strip() method removes any whitespace from the beginning or the end:
a = " Hello, World! "
print(a.strip()) # returns "Hello, World!"
The lower() method returns the string in lower case:
a = "Hello, World!"
print(a.lower())
The upper() method returns the string in upper case:
Strings 2
a = "Hello, World!"
print(a.upper())
The replace() method replaces a string with another string:
a = "Hello, World!"
print(a.replace("H", "J"))
The split() method splits the string into substrings if it finds instances of the
separator:
a = "Hello, World!"
print(a.split(",")) # returns ['Hello', ' World!']
Check String
To check if a certain phrase or character is present in a string, we can use the
keywords in or not in
Check if the phrase "ain" is present in the following text:
txt = "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain"
x = "ain" in txt
print(x)
Check if the phrase "ain" is NOT present in the following text:
txt = "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain"
x = "ain" not in txt
print(x)
String Concatenation
To concatenate, or combine, two strings you can use the + operator.
Strings 3
a = "Hello"
b = "World"
c = a + " " + b
print(c)
String Format
As we learned in the Python Variables chapter, we cannot combine strings and
numbers like this:
age = input()
txt = "My name is John, I am " + age
print(txt)
we can combine strings and numbers by using the format() method!
The format() method takes the passed arguments, formats them, and places
them in the string where the placeholders {} are
Use the format() method to insert numbers into strings
age = input() #18
txt = "My name is John, and I am {}".format(age)
print(txt)
The format() method takes unlimited number of arguments, and are placed into
the respective placeholders:
quantity = 3
itemno = 567
price = 49.95
myorder = "I want {} pieces of item {} for {} dollars.".format(quantity, itemno, price)
print(myorder)
You can use index numbers 0 to be sure the arguments are placed in the correct
placeholders:
quantity = 3
itemno = 567
Strings 4
price = 49.95
myorder = "I want to pay {2} dollars for {0} pieces of item {1}."
print(myorder.format(quantity, itemno, price))
Escape Character
To insert characters that are illegal in a string, use an escape character.
An escape character is a backslash \ followed by the character you want to
insert
Escape characters
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 returns new values. They do not change the original
string
String methods
Method Description
capitalize() Converts the first character to upper case
Strings 5
Method Description
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
expandtabs() Sets the tab size of the string
Searches the string for a specified value and returns the position of where it
find()
was found
format() Formats specified values in a string
format_map() Formats specified values in a string
Searches the string for a specified value and returns the position of where it
index()
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
isdecimal() Returns True if all characters in the string are decimals
isdigit() Returns True if all characters in the string are digits
isidentifier() Returns True if the string is an identifier
islower() Returns True if all characters in the string are lower case
isnumeric() Returns True if all characters in the string are numeric
isprintable() Returns True if all characters in the string are printable
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
maketrans() Returns a translation table to be used in translations
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
Searches the string for a specified value and returns the last position of
rfind()
where it was found
Searches the string for a specified value and returns the last position of
rindex()
where it was found
Strings 6
Method Description
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
startswith() Returns true if the string starts with the specified value
strip() Returns a trimmed version of the string
swapcase() Swaps cases, lower case becomes upper case and vice versa
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
Strings 7
