STRING

Strings
index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
or -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1
character P . D i d d y

>>> name = "P. Diddy"

• Accessing character(s): >>> name[0]
'P'
variable [ index ] >>> name[7]
variable [ index1:index2 ] 'y'
>>> name[-1]
'y'
>>> name[3:6]
– index2 exclusive 'Did'
>>> name[3:]
– index1 or index2 can be 'Diddy'
omitted (goes to end of string) >>> name[:-2]
'P. Did'

2
 String Methods
Java Python
length len(str)
startsWith, endsWith startswith, endswith
toLowerCase, toUpperCase upper, lower,
isupper, islower,
capitalize, swapcase
indexOf find
trim strip

>>> name = "Martin Douglas Stepp"

>>> name.upper()
'MARTIN DOUGLAS STEPP'
>>> name.lower().startswith("martin")
True
>>> len(name)
20

3
 Looping Through Strings

Using a while statement, fruit = 'banana' 0b

an iteration variable, and index = 0 1a
the len function, we can while index < len(fruit): 2n
letter = fruit[index] 3a
construct a loop to look at
print(index, letter)
each of the letters in a 4n
index = index + 1
string individually 5a
 Looping Through Strings

• A definite loop using a b

for statement is much a
fruit = 'banana'
more elegant n
for letter in fruit:
a
• The iteration variable is print(letter)
n
completely taken care of a
by the for loop
 Looping Through Strings

• A definite loop using a fruit = 'banana'

for letter in fruit :
b
for statement is much a
print(letter)
more elegant n
a
• The iteration variable is index = 0
n
completely taken care of while index < len(fruit) :
letter = fruit[index] a
by the for loop
print(letter)
index = index + 1
 Looping and Counting

word = 'banana'
This is a simple loop that count = 0
loops through each letter in a for letter in word :
string and counts the number if letter == 'a' :
of times the loop encounters count = count + 1
the 'a' character print(count)
 Looking Deeper into in

• The iteration variable

“iterates” through the Iteration Six-character
sequence (ordered set) variable string
• The block (body) of code is
executed once for each value for letter in 'banana' :
in the sequence print(letter)
• The iteration variable moves
through all of the values in the
sequence
Yes No b a n a n a
Done? Advance letter

print(letter)

for letter in 'banana' :

print(letter)

The iteration variable “iterates” through the string and the block (body)
of code is executed once for each value in the sequence
More String Operations
Slicing Strings M o n t y P y t h o n
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
• We can also look at any
continuous section of a string
using a colon operator >>> s = 'Monty Python'
>>> print(s[0:4])
• The second number is one Mont
beyond the end of the slice - >>> print(s[6:7])
“up to but not including” P
>>> print(s[6:20])
• If the second number is
Python
beyond the end of the string,
it stops at the end
Slicing Strings M o n t y P y t h o n
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

>>> s = 'Monty Python'

If we leave off the first number >>> print(s[:2])
or the last number of the slice, Mo
it is assumed to be the >>> print(s[8:])
beginning or end of the string thon
respectively >>> print(s[:])
Monty Python
 String Concatenation

>>> a = 'Hello'
>>> b = a + 'There'
When the + operator is >>> print(b)
applied to strings, it means HelloThere
“concatenation” >>> c = a + ' ' + 'There'
>>> print(c)
Hello There
>>>
 Using in as a Logical Operator

>>> fruit = 'banana'

• The in keyword can also be >>> 'n' in fruit
used to check to see if one True
string is “in” another string >>> 'm' in fruit
False
• The in expression is a >>> 'nan' in fruit
True
logical expression that >>> if 'a' in fruit :
returns True or False and ... print('Found it!')
can be used in an if ...
statement Found it!
>>>
 String Comparison

if word == 'banana':
print('All right, bananas.')

if word < 'banana':

print('Your word,' + word + ', comes before banana.')
elif word > 'banana':
print('Your word,' + word + ', comes after banana.')
else:
print('All right, bananas.')
 String Library
str.capitalize() str.replace(old, new[, count])
str.center(width[, fillchar]) str.lower()
str.endswith(suffix[, start[, end]]) str.rstrip([chars])
str.find(sub[, start[, end]]) str.strip([chars])
str.lstrip([chars]) str.upper()
Searching a String
b a n a n a
• We use the find() function to search
for a substring within another string
0 1 2 3 4 5

• find() finds the first occurrence of the >>> fruit = 'banana'

substring >>> pos = fruit.find('na')
>>> print(pos)
• If the substring is not found, find() 2
returns -1 >>> aa = fruit.find('z')
>>> print(aa)
• Remember that string position starts -1
at zero
 Making everything UPPER CASE

• You can make a copy of a >>> greet = 'Hello Bob'

string in lower case or upper >>> nnn = greet.upper()
case >>> print(nnn)
HELLO BOB
• Often when we are searching >>> www = greet.lower()
for a string using find() we first
>>> print(www)
convert the string to lower case
hello bob
so we can search a string
>>>
regardless of case
 Search and Replace

• The replace() function

is like a “search and >>> greet = 'Hello Bob'
replace” operation in a >>> nstr = greet.replace('Bob','Jane')
>>> print(nstr)
word processor Hello Jane
>>> nstr = greet.replace('o','X')
• It replaces all >>> print(nstr)
occurrences of the HellX BXb
search string with the >>>
replacement string
 Stripping Whitespace
• Sometimes we want to take
a string and remove
whitespace at the beginning >>> greet = ' Hello Bob '
>>> greet.lstrip()
and/or end
'Hello Bob '
>>> greet.rstrip()
• lstrip() and rstrip() remove ' Hello Bob'
whitespace at the left or right >>> greet.strip()
'Hello Bob'
• strip() removes both >>>
beginning and ending
whitespace
 Prefixes
>>> line = 'Please have a nice day'
>>> line.startswith('Please')
True
>>> line.startswith('p')
False
 Parsing and
21 31 Extracting
From stephen.marquard@uct.ac.za Sat Jan 5 09:14:16 2008

>>> data = 'From stephen.marquard@uct.ac.za Sat Jan 5 09:14:16 2008'

>>> atpos = data.find('@')
>>> print(atpos)
21
>>> sppos = data.find(' ',atpos)
>>> print(sppos)
31
>>> host = data[atpos+1 : sppos]
>>> print(host)
uct.ac.za
 Exercise
1. Write a function to find the length of a string (don't use the
len() function)
2. Write a program to count the number of words in a string
(assume the words in the string are separated by a space)
3. Write a function to count the number of vowels (a e i o u)
and consonants in the string

23