String Data Type

The most commonly used object in any project and in any programming language is String only.
Hence we should aware complete information about String data type.

What is String?
Any sequence of characters within either single quotes or double quotes is considered as a
String.

Syntax:
s='durga'
s="durga"

Note: In most of other languges like C, C++,Java, a single character with in single quotes is
treated as char data type value. But in Python we are not having char data type.Hence it is
treated as String only.

Eg:
>>> ch='a'
>>> type(ch)
<class 'str'>

How to define multi-line String literals:

We can define multi-line String literals by using triple single or double quotes.

Eg:
>>> s='''durga
software
solutions'''

We can also use triple quotes to use single quotes or double quotes as symbol inside String
literal.

Eg:
s='This is ' single quote symbol'
==>invalid s='This is \' single quote
symbol' ==>valid s="This is ' single quote
symbol"====>valid s='This is " double
quotes symbol' ==>valid
s='The "Python Notes" by 'durga' is very helpful' ==>invalid
s="The "Python Notes" by 'durga' is very helpful"==>invalid
s='The \"Python Notes\" by \'durga\' is very helpful' ==>valid
s='''The "Python Notes" by 'durga' is very helpful''' ==>valid
How to access characters of a String:

We can access characters of a string by using the following ways.

1. By using index
2. By using slice operator

1. By using index:

Python supports both +ve and -ve index.

+ve index means left to right(Forward direction)
-ve index means right to left(Backward direction)

Eg:
s='durga'

diagram

Eg:
>>> s='durga'
>>> s[0]
'd'
>>> s[4]
'a'
>>> s[-1]
'a'
>>> s[10]
IndexError: string index out of range

Note: If we are trying to access characters of a string with out of range index then we
will get error saying : IndexError

Q. Write a program to accept some string from the keyboard and display its characters by
index wise(both positive and nEgative index)

test.py:

1) s=input("Enter Some String:")

5) i=i+1

Output: D:\
python_classes>py test.py
Enter Some String:durga
The character present at positive index 0 and at nEgative index -5
is d The character present at positive index 1 and at nEgative index
-4 is u The character present at positive index 2 and at nEgative
index -3 is r The character present at positive index 3 and at
nEgative index -2 is g The character present at positive index 4 and
at nEgative index -1 is a

2. Accessing characters by using slice operator:

Syntax: s[bEginindex:endindex:step]

bEginindex:From where we have to consider slice(substring)

endindex: We have to terminate the slice(substring) at
endindex-1 step: incremented value

Note: If we are not specifying bEgin index then it will consider from bEginning of the
string. If we are not specifying end index then it will consider up to end of the
string
The default value for step is 1

Eg:

1) >>> s="Learning Python is very very easy!!!"

2) >>> s[1:7:1]
3) 'earnin'

5) 'earnin'
6) >>> s[1:7:2]
7) 'eri'

9) 'Learnin'
10) >>> s[7:]
11) 'g Python is very very easy!!!'

13) 'Learning Python is very very easy!!!'

14) >>> s[:]
15) 'Learning Python is very very easy!!!'

17) '!!!ysae yrev yrev si nohtyP gninraeL'

Behaviour of slice operator:

s[bEgin:end:step]

step value can be either +ve or –ve

if +ve then it should be forward direction(left to right) and we have to consider bEgin to

end-1 if -ve then it should be backward direction(right to left) and we have to consider bEgin

to end+1
***Note:
In the backward direction if end value is -1 then result is always
empty. In the forward direction if end value is 0 then result is
always empty.

In forward direction:
default value for bEgin: 0
default value for end: length of
string default value for step: +1

In backward direction:
default value for bEgin: -1
default value for end: -(length of string+1)

Note: Either forward or backward direction, we can take both +ve and -ve values for bEgin
and end index.

Mathematical Operators for String:

We can apply the following mathematical operators for Strings.

1. + operator for concatenation

2. * operator for repetition

print("durga"+"soft") #durgasoft
print("durga"*2) #durgadurga

Note:
1. To use + operator for Strings, compulsory both arguments should be str type

2. To use * operator for Strings, compulsory one argument should be str and other
argument should be int

len() in-built function:

We can use len() function to find the number of characters present in the string.

Eg:
s='durga'
print(len(s)) #5
Q. Write a program to access each character of string in forward and backward
direction by using while loop?

1) s="Learning Python is very easy !!!"

2) n=len(s)
3) i=0
4) print("Forward direction")
5) while i<n:
6) print(s[i],end=' ')
7) i +=1
8) print("Backward direction")
9) i=-1
10) while i>=-n:
11) print(s[i],end=' ')
12) i=i-1

Alternative ways:
1) s="Learning Python is very easy !!!"
2) print("Forward direction")
3) for i in s:
4) print(i,end=' ')
5)
6) print("Forward direction")
7) for i in s[::]:
8) print(i,end=' ')
9)
10) print("Backward direction")
11) for i in s[::-1]:
12) print(i,end=' ')

Checking Membership:
We can check whether the character or string is the member of another string or not by using in
and not in operators

s='durga'
print('d' in s) #True
print('z' in s) #False

Program:

1) s=input("Enter main string:")

2) subs=input("Enter sub string:")
3) if subs in s:
4) print(subs,"is found in main string")
5) else:
 6) print(subs,"is not found in main string")

Output:
D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter main string:durgasoftwaresolutions
Enter sub string:durga
durga is found in main string

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter main string:durgasoftwaresolutions
Enter sub string:python
python is not found in main string

Comparison of Strings:
We can use comparison operators (<,<=,>,>=) and equality operators(==,!=) for strings.

Comparison will be performed based on alphabetical order.

Eg:

1) s1=input("Enter first string:")

2) s2=input("Enter Second string:")
3) if s1==s2:
4) print(“Both strings are equal”)
5) elif s1<s2:
6) print("First String is less than Second String")
7) else:
8) print("First String is greater than Second String")

Output: D:\
python_classes>py test.py
Enter first string:durga
Enter Second string:durga
Both strings are equal

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter first string:durga
Enter Second string:ravi
First String is less than Second String

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter first string:durga
Enter Second string:anil
First String is greater than Second String
Removing spaces from the string:
We can use the following 3 methods

1. rstrip()===>To remove spaces at right hand side

2. lstrip()===>To remove spaces at left hand side
3. strip() ==>To remove spaces both sides

Eg:

1) city=input("Enter your city Name:")

2) scity=city.strip()
3) if scity=='Hyderabad':
4) print("Hello Hyderbadi..Adab")
5) elif scity=='Chennai':
6) print("Hello Madrasi...Vanakkam")
7) elif scity=="Bangalore":
8) print("Hello Kannadiga...Shubhodaya")
9) else:
10) print("your entered city is invalid")

Finding Substrings:
We can use the following 4 methods

For forward direction:

find()
index()

For backward direction:

rfind()
rindex()

1. find():
s.find(substring)

Returns index of first occurrence of the given substring. If it is not available then we will get -
1

Eg:

1) s="Learning Python is very easy"

 2) print(s.find("Python")) #9
3) print(s.find("Java")) # -1
4) print(s.find("r"))#3
5) print(s.rfind("r"))#21

Note: By default find() method can search total string. We can also specify the boundaries to
search.

s.find(substring,bEgin,end)

It will always search from bEgin index to end-1 index

Eg:

1) s="durgaravipavanshiva"
2) print(s.find('a'))#4
3) print(s.find('a',7,15))#10
4) print(s.find('z',7,15))#-1

index() method:
index() method is exactly same as find() method except that if the specified substring is
not available then we will get ValueError.

Eg:

1) s=input("Enter main string:")

2) subs=input("Enter sub string:")
3) try:
4) n=s.index(subs)
5) except ValueError:
6) print("substring not found")
7) else:
8) print("substring found")

Output:
D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter main string:learning python is very
easy Enter sub string:python
substring found

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter main string:learning python is very
easy Enter sub string:java
substring not found
Q. Program to display all positions of substring in a given main string

1) s=input("Enter main string:")

2) subs=input("Enter sub string:")
3) flag=False

5) n=len(s)
6) while True:
7) pos=s.find(subs,pos+1,n)

9) break
10) print("Found at position",pos)
11) flag=True

13) print("Not Found")

Output:

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter main string:abbababababacdefg
Enter sub string:a
Found at position
0 Found at
position 3 Found
at position 5
Found at position
7 Found at
position 9 Found
at position 11

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter main string:abbababababacdefg
Enter sub string:bb
Found at position 1

Counting substring in the given String:

We can find the number of occurrences of substring present in the given string by using count()
method.

1. s.count(substring) ==> It will search through out the string

2. s.count(substring, begin, end) ===> It will search from bEgin index to end-1 index

Eg:

1) s="abcabcabcabcadda"
2) print(s.count('a'))
3) print(s.count('ab'))
4) print(s.count('a',3,7))
Output:
6
4
2

Replacing a string with another string:

s.replace(oldstring,newstring)

inside s, every occurrence of oldstring will be replaced with newstring.

Eg1:
s="Learning Python is very difficult"
s1=s.replace("difficult","easy")
print(s1)

Output:
Learning Python is very easy

Eg2: All occurrences will be replaced

s="ababababababab"
s1=s.replace("a","b")
print(s1)

Output: bbbbbbbbbbbbbb

Q. String objects are immutable then how we can change the content by
using replace() method.
Once we creates string object, we cannot change the content.This non changeable behaviour
is nothing but immutability. If we are trying to change the content by using any method,
then with those changes a new object will be created and changes won't be happend in
existing object.

Hence with replace() method also a new object got created but existing object won't be
changed.

Eg:
s="abab"
s1=s.replace("a","b")
print(s,"is available at :",id(s))
print(s1,"is available at :",id(s1))

Output:
abab is available at :
4568672 bbbb is available at
: 4568704
In the above example, original object is available and we can see new object which was created
because of replace() method.

Splitting of Strings:
We can split the given string according to specified seperator by using split() method.

l=s.split(seperator)

The default seperator is space. The return type of split() method is List

Eg1:

1) s="durga software solutions"

2) l=s.split()
3) for x in l:
4) print(x)

Output:
durga
software
solutions

Eg2:

1) s="22-02-2018"
2) l=s.split('-')
3) for x in l:
4) print(x)

Output:
22
02
2018

Joining of Strings:
We can join a group of strings(list or tuple) wrt the given seperator.

s=seperator.join(group of strings)

Eg:
t=('sunny','bunny','chinny')
s='-'.join(t)
print(s)

Output: sunny-bunny-chinny
Eg2:
l=['hyderabad','singapore','london','dubai']
s=':'.join(l)
print(s)

hyderabad:singapore:london:dubai

Changing case of a String:

We can change case of a string by using the following 4 methods.

1. upper()===>To convert all characters to upper case

2. lower() ===>To convert all characters to lower case
3. swapcase()===>converts all lower case characters to upper case and all upper case
characters to lower case
4. title() ===>To convert all character to title case. i.e first character in every word should be
upper case and all remaining characters should be in lower case.
5. capitalize() ==>Only first character will be converted to upper case and all remaining
characters can be converted to lower case

Eg:
s='learning Python is very Easy'
print(s.upper())
print(s.lower())
print(s.swapcase())
print(s.title())
print(s.capitalize())
print(s)

Output:
LEARNING PYTHON IS VERY EASY
learning python is very easy
LEARNING pYTHON IS VERY
eASY
Learning Python Is Very
Easy Learning python is
very easy

Checking starting and ending part of the string:

Python contains the following methods for this purpose

1. s.startswith(substring)
2. s.endswith(substring)

Eg:
s='learning Python is very
easy'
print(s.startswith('learning'))
print(s.endswith('learning'))
print(s.endswith('easy'))
Output:
True
False
True

To check type of characters present in a string:

Python contains the following methods for this purpose.

1) isalnum(): Returns True if all characters are alphanumeric( a to z , A to Z ,0 to9 )

2) isalpha(): Returns True if all characters are only alphabet symbols(a to z,A to Z)
3) isdigit(): Returns True if all characters are digits only( 0 to 9)
4) islower(): Returns True if all characters are lower case alphabet symbols
5) isupper(): Returns True if all characters are upper case aplhabet symbols
6) istitle(): Returns True if string is in title case
7) isspace(): Returns True if string contains only spaces

Eg:
print('Durga786'.isalnum()) #True
print('durga786'.isalpha()) #False
print('durga'.isalpha()) #True
print('durga'.isdigit()) #False
print('786786'.isdigit()) #True
print('abc'.islower()) #True
print('Abc'.islower()) #False
print('abc123'.islower()) #True
print('ABC'.isupper()) #True
print('Learning python is Easy'.istitle()) #False
print('Learning Python Is Easy'.istitle())
#True print(' '.isspace()) #True

Demo Program:

1) s=input("Enter any character:")

2) if s.isalnum():
3) print("Alpha Numeric Character")
4) if s.isalpha():
5) print("Alphabet character")
6) if s.islower():
7) print("Lower case alphabet character")
8) else:
9) print("Upper case alphabet character")
10) else:
11) print("it is a digit")
12) elif s.isspace():
13) print("It is space character")
14) else:
 15) print("Non Space Special Character")

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter any character:7
Alpha Numeric Character
it is a digit

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter any character:a
Alpha Numeric Character
Alphabet character
Lower case alphabet character

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter any character:$
Non Space Special Character

D:\python_classes>py test.py
Enter any character:A
Alpha Numeric Character
Alphabet character
Upper case alphabet character

Formatting the Strings:

We can format the strings with variable values by using replacement operator {} and format()
method.

Eg:
name='durga'
salary=10000
age=48
print("{} 's salary is {} and his age is {}".format(name,salary,age))
print("{0} 's salary is {1} and his age is {2}".format(name,salary,age))
print("{x} 's salary is {y} and his age is
{z}".format(z=age,y=salary,x=name))

Output:
durga 's salary is 10000 and his age is
48 durga 's salary is 10000 and his age
is 48 durga 's salary is 10000 and his
age is 48