Python String Tutorial – Python String Functions and Operations

In this Python String tutorial, you will learn what is Python string with examples.

Moreover, you will learn how to declare and slice a string in python and also look at the Python String functions and Python String operations.

At last, you will learn escape sequences in Python. 

So, let’s start the Python String Tutorial.

Python Strings Tutorial – Functions and Operations

What is Python String?

A Python string is a sequence of characters. There is a built-in class ‘str’ for handling Python string.

You can prove this with the type() function.

>>> type('Dogs are love')

Output

Python doesn’t have the char data-type like C++ or Java does.

How to Declare Python String?

You can declare a Python string using either single quotes or double quotes.

>>> a='Dogs are love'
>>> print(a)

Output

>>> a="Dogs are love"
>>> print(a)

Output

However, you cannot use a single quote to begin a string and a double quote to end it, and vice-versa.

>>> a='Dogs are love"

Output

How to Use Quotes inside Python String?

Since we delimit strings using quotes, there are some things you need to take care of when using them inside a string.

>>> a="Dogs are "love""

Output

If you need to use double quotes inside a Python string, delimit the string with single quotes.

>>> a='Dogs are "love"'
>>> print(a)

Output

And if you need to use single quotes inside a string, delimit it with double-quotes.

>>> a="Dogs are 'love'"
>>> print(a)

Output

You can use as many quotes as you want, then.

>>> a="'Dogs' 'are' 'love'"
>> print(a)

Output

Spanning a String Across Lines

When you want to span a Python string across multiple lines, you can use triple quotes.

[php]>>> a="""Hello
  Welcome"""
>>> print(a)[/php]

Output

It preserves newlines too, unlike using a backward slash for the same.

>>> a="Hello\
        Welcome"
>>> print(a)

Output

How to Access the Python String?

A string is immutable; it can’t be changed.

>>> a="Dogs"
>>> a[0]="H"

Output

But you can access a string.

>>> a="Dogs are love"
>>> a

Output

>>> print(a)

Output

1. Displaying a single character

To display a single character from a string, put its index in square brackets. Indexing begins at 0.

>>> a[1]

Output

2. Slicing a string

Sometimes, you may want to display only a part of a string. For this, use the slicing operator [].

>>> a[3:8]

Output

Here, it printed characters 3 to 7, with the indexing beginning at 0.

>>> a[:8]

Output

This prints characters from the beginning to character 7.

>>> a[8:]

Output

This prints characters from character 8 to the end of the string.

>>> a[:]

Output

This prints the whole string.

>>> a[:-2]

Output

This prints characters from the beginning to two characters less than the end of the string.

>>> a[-2:]

Output

This prints characters from two characters from the end to the end of the string.

>>> a[-3:-2]

Output

This prints characters from three characters from the string’s end to two characters from it.

The following codes return empty strings.

>>> a[-2:-2]

Output

>>> a[2:2]

Output

Python String Concatenation

Concatenation is the operation of joining stuff together. Python Strings can join using the concatenation operator +.

>>> a='Do you see this, '
>>> b='$$?'
>>> a+b

Output

Let’s take another example.

>>> a='10'
>>> print(2*a)

Output

Multiplying ‘a’ by 2 returned 1010, and not 20, because ‘10’ is a string, not a number. You cannot concatenate a string to a number.

>>> '10'+10

Output

Python String Formatters

Sometimes, you may want to print variables along with a string. You can either use commas, or use string formatters for the same.

>>> city='Ahmedabad'
>>> print("Age",21,"City",city)

Output

1. f-strings

The letter ‘f’ precedes the string, and the variables are mentioned in curly braces in their places.

>>> name='Ayushi'
>>> print(f"It isn't {name}'s birthday")

Output

Notice that because we wanted to use two single quotes in the string, we delimited the entire string with double quotes instead.

2. format() method

You can use the format() method to do the same. It succeeds the string and has the variables as arguments separated by commas.
In the string, use curly braces to posit the variables. Inside the curly braces, you can either put 0,1,.. or the variables.

When doing the latter, you must assign values to them in the format method.

>>> print("I love {0}".format(a))

Output

>>> print("I love {a}".format(a='cats'))

Output

The variables don’t have to defined before the print statement.

>>> print("I love {b}".format(b='ferrets'))

Output

3. % operator

The % operator goes where the variables go in a string. %s is for string

What follows the string is the operator and variables in parentheses/in a tuple.

>>> b='ferrets'
>>> print("I love %s and %s" %(a,b))

Output

Other options include:

%d – for integers

%f – for floating-point numbers

Escape Sequences in Python

In a Python string, you may want to put a tab, a linefeed, or other such things. Escape sequences allow us to do this.

An escape sequence is a backslash followed by a character, depending on what you want to do.

Python supports the following sequences.

• \n – linefeed
• \t – tab

>>> print("hell\to")

Output

• \\ – backslash

Since a backslash may be a part of an escape sequence, so, a backslash must be escaped by a backslash too.

• \’ – A single quote can be escaped by a backslash. This lets you use single quotes freely in a string.
• \” – Like the single quote, the double quote can be escaped too.

Any Doubt yet in Python String and Python String Operations and Functions? Please Comment.

Python String Functions

Python provides us with a number of functions that we can apply on strings or to create strings.

1. len()

The len() function returns the length of a string.

>>> a='book'
>>> len(a)

Output

You can also use it to find how long a slice of the string is.

>>> len(a[2:])

Output

2. str()

This function converts any data type into a string.

>>> str(2+3j)

Output

>>> str(['red','green','blue'])

Output

3. lower() and upper()

These methods return the string in lowercase and uppercase, respectively.

>>> a='Book'
>>> a.lower()

Output

>>> a.upper()

Output

4. strip()

It removes whitespaces from the beginning and end of the string.

>>> a='  Book '
>>> a.strip()

Output

5. isdigit()

Returns True if all characters in a string are digits.

>>> a='777'
>> a.isdigit()

Output

>>> a='77a'
>>> a.isdigit()

Output

6. isalpha()

Returns True if all characters in a string are characters from an alphabet.

>>> a='abc'
>>> a.isalpha()

Output

>>> a='ab7'
>>> a.isalpha()

Output

7. isspace()

Returns True if all characters in a string are spaces.

>>> a='   '
>>> a.isspace()

Output

>>> a=' \'  '
>>> a.isspace()

Output

8. startswith()

It takes a string as an argument, and returns True if the string it is applied on begins with the string in the argument.

>>> a.startswith('un')

Output

9. endswith()

It takes a string as an argument, and returns True if the string it is applied on ends with the string in the argument.

>>> a='therefore'
>>> a.endswith('fore')

Output

10. find()

It takes an argument and searches for it in the string on which it is applied.

It then returns the index of the substring.

>>> 'homeowner'.find('meow')

Output

If the string doesn’t exist in the main string, then the index it returns is 1.

>>> 'homeowner'.find('wow')

Output

-1

11. replace()

It takes two arguments. The first is the substring to be replaced. The second is the substring to replace with.

>>> 'banana'.replace('na','ha')

Output

12. split()

It takes one argument. The string is then split around every occurrence of the argument in the string.

>>> 'No. Okay. Why?'.split('.')

Output

13. join()

It takes a list as an argument and joins the elements in the list using the string it is applied on.

>>> "*".join(['red','green','blue'])

Output

Python String Operations

Python String Operations

1. Comparison Operation in Python

Python Strings can compare using relational operators.

>>> 'hey'<'hi'

Output

‘hey’ is lesser than ‘hi lexicographically (because i comes after e in the dictionary)

>>> a='check'
>>> a=='check'

Output

>>> 'yes'!='no'

Output

2. Arithmetic Operation in Python

Some arithmetic operations can be applied on strings.

>>> 'ba'+'na'*2

Output

3. Membership Operation in Python

The membership operators of Python can be used to check if string is a substring to another.

>>> 'na' in 'banana'

Output

>>> 'less' not in 'helpless'

Output

4. Identity Operation in Python

Python’s identity operators ‘is’ and ‘is not’ can be used on strings.

>>> 'Hey' is 'Hi'

Output

>>> 'Yo' is not 'yo'

Output

5. Logical Operation in Python

Python’s and, or, and not operators can be applied too. An empty string has a Boolean value of False.

a. and- If the value on the left is True it returns the value on the right.

Otherwise, the value on the left is False, it returns False.

>>> '' and '1'

Output

>>> '1' and ''

Output

b. or- If the value on the left is True, it returns True. Otherwise, the value on the right is returned.
c. not- As we said earlier, an empty string has a Boolean value of False.

>>> not('1')

Output

>>> not('')

Output

This was all about the tutorial on Python strings. Hope you like the Python strings tutorial.

Conclusion

In this Python String tutorial, you learned about python string with string functions and Operators, and how to declare and access them.

Then you learned about python string concatenation and formatters in python.

Finally, You learned about Python string functions and operations that you can perform on strings.