Python String

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='Sohan'

s="Sohan"

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='''Sohan 

tech ware

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 'Sohan' is very helpful' ==>invalid

s="The "Python Notes" by 'Sohan' is very helpful"==>invalid

s='The \"Python Notes\" by \'Sohan\' is very helpful' ==>valid

s='''The "Python Notes" by 'Sohan' 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='Sohan'

 

Eg:
>>> s='sohan'
>>> s[0]
's'
>>> s[4]
'n'
>>> s[-1]
'n'
>>> 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:")

2) i=0

3) for x in s:

4) print("The character present at positive index {} and at nEgative index {} is {}".format(i,i

-len(s),x))

5) i=i+1


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' 

4) >>> s[1:7]

5) 'earnin' 

6) >>> s[1:7:2]

7) 'eri' 

8) >>> s[:7]

9) 'Learnin' 

10) >>> s[7:]

11) 'g Python is very very easy!!!' 

12) >>> s[::]

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

14) >>> s[:]

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

16) >>> s[::-1]

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("Sohan"+"tech ") #Sohantech  

print("Sohan"*2) #SohanSohan 

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='Sohan'

print(len(s)) #5

 

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=sohan'

print('s' in s) #True

print('z' in s) #False

 

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")

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="Sohanravipavanshiva" 

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")

 

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))

 

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))

 

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="Sohan tech ware solutions" 

2) l=s.split()

3) for x in l:

4) print(x)

 

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

 

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())

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'))

 

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

 

Formatting the Strings:

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

method.

Eg:

name='Sohan'

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:

Sohan 's salary is 10000 and his age is 48

Sohan 's salary is 10000 and his age is 48

Sohan 's salary is 10000 and his age is 48

 

 

Important Programs rEgarding String Concept

Q1. Write a program to reverse the given String

input: sohan

output:nahos

1 st Way:

s=input("Enter Some String:")

print(s[::-1])

2 nd Way:

s=input("Enter Some String:")

print(''.join(reversed(s)))

3 rd Way:

s=input("Enter Some String:")

i=len(s)-1

target=''

while i>=0:

target=target+s[i]

i=i-1

print(target)