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Python String

string intro

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6 views

Python String

string intro

Uploaded by

Arya Bhatt
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Python String

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn about Python string and its basic operations.

Introduction to Python string


A string is a series of characters. In Python, anything inside quotes is a string. And you can use
either single or double quotes. For example:

message = 'This is a string in Python'


message = "This is also a string"

If a string contains a single quote, you should place it in double-quotes like this:

message = "It's a string"

And when a string contains double quotes, you can use the single quotes:

message = '"Beautiful is better than ugly.". Said Tim Peters'

To escape the quotes, you use the backslash (\). For example:

message = 'It\'s also a valid string'

The Python interpreter will treat the backslash character (\) special. If you don’t want it to do so,
you can use raw strings by adding the letter r before the first quote. For example:

message = r'C:\python\bin'

Creating multiline strings

To span a string multiple lines, you use triple-quotes “””…””” or ”’…”’. For example:

help_message = '''
Usage: mysql command
-h hostname
-d database name
-u username
-p password
'''

print(help_message)

It’ll output the following if you execute the program:

Usage: mysql command


-h hostname
-d database name
-u username
-p password

Using variables in Python strings with the f-strings


Sometimes, you want to use the values of variables in a string.

For example, you may want to use the value of the name variable inside the message string
variable:
name = 'John'
message = 'Hi'

To do it, you place the letter f before the opening quotation mark and put the brace around the
variable name:

name = 'John'
message = f'Hi {name}'
print(message)

Python will replace the {name} by the value of the name variable. The code will show the
following on the screen:

Hi John

The message is a format string, or f-string in short. Python introduced the f-string in version 3.6.

Concatenating Python strings


When you place the string literals next to each other, Python automatically concatenates them into
one string. For example:

greeting = 'Good ' 'Morning!'


print(greeting)

Output:

Good Morning!

To concatenate two string variables, you use the operator +:

greeting = 'Good '


time = 'Afternoon'

greeting = greeting + time + '!'


print(greeting)

Output:

Good Afternoon!

Accessing string elements


Since a string is a sequence of characters, you can access its elements using an index. The first
character in the string has an index of zero.

The following example shows how to access elements using an index:

str = "Python String"


print(str[0]) # P
print(str[1]) # y

How it works:

● First, create a variable that holds a string "Python String".

● Then, access the first and second characters of the string by using the square brackets
[] and indexes.
If you use a negative index, Python returns the character starting from the end of the string. For
example:

str = "Python String"


print(str[-1]) # g
print(str[-2]) # n

The following illustrates the indexes of the string "Python String":

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| P | y | t | h | o | n | | S | t | r | i | n | g |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
-13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

Getting the length of a string


To get the length of a string, you use the len() function. For example:

str = "Python String"


str_len = len(str)
print(str_len)

Output:

13

Slicing strings
Slicing allows you to get a substring from a string. For example:

str = "Python String"


print(str[0:2])

Output:

Py

The str[0:2] returns a substring that includes the character from the index 0 (included) to 2
(excluded).

The syntax for slicing is as follows:

string[start:end]

The substring always includes the character at the start and excludes the string at the end.

The start and end are optional. If you omit the start, it defaults to zero. If you omit the end, it
defaults to the string’s length.

Python strings are immutable


Python strings are immutable. It means that you cannot change the string. For example, you’ll get
an error if you update one or more characters in a string:

str = "Python String"


str[0] = 'J'

Error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "app.py", line 2, in <module>
str[0] = 'J'
TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment</module>

When want to modify a string, you need to create a new one from the existing string. For example:

str = "Python String"


new_str = 'J' + str[1:]
print(new_str)

Output:

Jython String

Summary

● In Python, a string is a series of characters. Also, Python strings are immutable.

● Use quotes, either single quotes or double quotes to create string literals.

● Use the backslash character \ to escape quotes in strings

● Use raw strings r'...' to escape the backslash character.

● Use f-strings to insert substitute variables in literal strings.

● Place literal strings next to each other to concatenate them. And use the + operator to
concatenate string variables.

● Use the len() function to get the size of a string.

● Use the str[n] to access the character at the position n of the string str.

● Use slicing to extract a substring from a string.

Python Boolean
Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn about the Python boolean data type, falsy and truthy values.

Introduction to Python Boolean data type


In programming, you often want to check if a condition is true or not and perform some actions
based on the result.

To represent true and false, Python provides you with the boolean data type. The boolean value
has a technical name as bool.

The boolean data type has two values: True and False.

Note that the boolean values True and False start with the capital letters (T) and (F).

The following example defines two boolean variables:

is_active = True
is_admin = False
When you compare two numbers, Python returns the result as a boolean value. For example:

>>> 20 > 10
True
>>> 20 < 10
False

Also, comparing two strings results in a boolean value:

>>> 'a' < 'b'


True
>>> 'a' > 'b'
False

The bool() function


To find out if a value is True or False, you use the bool() function. For example:

>>> bool('Hi')
True
>>> bool('')
False
>>> bool(100)
True
>>> bool(0)
False

As you can see clearly from the output, some values evaluate to True and the others evaluate to
False.

Falsy and Truthy values


When a value evaluates to True, it’s truthy. And if a value evaluates to False, it’s falsy.

The following are falsy values in Python:

● The number zero (0)

● An empty string ''

● False

● None

● An empty list []

● An empty tuple ()

● An empty dictionary {}

The truthy values are the other values that aren’t falsy.

Note that you’ll learn more about the None, list, tuple, and dictionary in the upcoming
tutorials.

Summary
● Python boolean data type has two values: True and False.

● Use the bool() function to test if a value is True or False.

● The falsy values evaluate to False while the truthy values evaluate to True.

● Falsy values are the number zero, an empty string, False, None, an empty list, an
empty tuple, and an empty dictionary. Truthy values are the values that are not falsy.

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