COMP-122

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER
PROGRAMMING
Lecture 4: Strings

CSIT Department | MIT

Outline
+Definition
+Creating String
+Formatting String Output
+String Indexing and Slicing
+String Functions
+String Input and Output
Definition
+A string is a sequence of characters.
+String is a data type in Python for dealing with text
+Typing string values in Python code is fairly
straightforward: they begin and end with the quotes.
Creating a String
+A string is created by enclosing text in quotes. You can
use either single quotes, ', or double quotes, ".
+A triple-quote can also be used for multi-line strings:
Creating a String cont…
+ An escape character lets you use characters that are otherwise impossible to put into a
string
>>> print(““I love programming”, Tony said”)
Syntax error
+ An escape character consists of a backslash (\) followed by the character you want to add
to the string:

+ Other escape characters include: \' Single quote

o \’ for single quote
o \” for double quote
o \t for Tab
o \n for Newline (line break)
o \\ for Backslash
Formatting String Output
+Format string is a way of making strings that have variables embedded in
them
+You embed variables inside a string by using a special {} sequence and then
put the variable you want inside the {} characters. These are braces { }. They
are sometimes called "curly brackets
+You must start the string with the letter f for “format,” as in f"Hello
{name}". This little f before the " and the {} characters tell Python 3, “Hey,
this string needs to be formatted. Put these variables in there.”
Formatting String Output cont... (2)
+Strings in Python have also a unique built-in operation that can
be accessed with the % operator.
+This lets you do simple string positional formatting very easily.

+Here we have used the %s format specifier to tell Python where

to substitute the value of name, represented as a string.
Formatting String Output cont... (3)
oApart from using the print f and % operator for formatting
string, python format() function has also been introduced for
handling complex string formatting more efficiently.

oThis method of the built-in string class provides functionality

for complex variable substitution and value formatting
oThe general syntax of format() method:
string.format(var1, var2, ….)
Formatting String Output cont... (4)
+Formatters work by putting in one replacement field and placeholder
defined by a pair of curly braces {} into a string and calling the
str.format() function.
+The value we wish to put into the placeholders and concatenate with
the string are passed as parameters into the format function.
>>> user = “Root1000”
>>> print(“Hello {}!”.format(user))

>>> fname = “John”

>>> sname = “Doe”
>>> print(“His name is {} {}”.format(fname, sname))
String Indexing
+Each character in a string has a numbered position called an
index
+In Python counting always starts at zero. To get the character at
the beginning of a string, you need to access the character at
position 0.
+You can access the character at the Nth position by putting the
number N in between two square brackets [] immediately after
the string:
String Slicing
+A slicing is used to pick out part (substring) of a string
+The basic structure is:
string name[starting location : ending location+1]
+You can leave either the starting or ending locations blank.
String Slicing cont…
+There is an optional third argument, that can specify the
step.

+Steps through the string by twos, selecting the characters

at indices 0, 2, and 4.
String Functions
+Strings come with a ton of methods that return
information about the string or return a new string that
is a modified version of the original.
+Strings provide methods that perform a variety of useful
operations.
String Functions conti… (2)
Here are some of the most useful string functions:
+lower(): returns a string with every letter of the original in lowercase
>>> “MUST”.lower()
MUST
+upper(): returns a string with every letter of the original in uppercase
+replace(x, y): returns a string with every occurrence of x replaced by y
String Methods conti… (3)
+count(x): counts the number of occurrences of x in the string
+index(x): returns the location of the first occurrence of x
+isalpha(): returns True if every character of the string is a letter
+isdigit() - Returns True if all characters in the string are digits
+startswith(x), endswith(x): returns True if the string value they are called on
begins or ends with x respectively.
+find(x): find the location of x string in another string
+split(): break a string into a list
String Functions conti… (5)
+join(): It takes a list of strings and concatenates the elements.
+join is a string method, so you have to invoke it on the delimiter
and pass the list as a parameter:

+len(): used to determine a string’s length

String Input and Output
Python has an input function which lets you ask a user for some
text input and then print the entered input on the screen using
print function.
1. input(prompt): To accept input from a user.
2. print(): To display output on the console/screen.
End.