Unit P2:

Numbers and
Strings
VARIABLES, VALUES, TYPES, EXPRESSIONS

Chapter 2

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Introduction
▪ Numbers and character strings (text sequences) are important data
types in any Python program
o These are also the building blocks we use to build more complex data
structures
▪ In this Unit, you will learn how to work with numbers and text.
▪ We will write several simple programs that use them

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Unit Goals
▪ To declare and initialize variables and constants
▪ To understand the properties and limitations of integers and
floating-point numbers
▪ To appreciate the importance of comments and good code layout
▪ To write arithmetic expressions and assignment statements
▪ To create programs that read, and process inputs, and display the
results
▪ To learn how to use Python strings

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Variables 2.1

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Variables
▪ A variable is a named storage location in a computer program, that
refers to a specific value
▪ There are many different types of values, each type used to store
different things

Variables Values

base 6
height 4
area
address 24.0
residence_city 'Corso Duca Degli Abruzzi'
birth_city
'Torino'

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Variables
▪ You ‘define’ a variable by telling the interpreter:
o What name you assign to the variable (and you will later use to refer to it)
o The initial value of the variable

cans = 4 # defines & initializes the variable cans

▪ You use an assignment statement to place a value into a variable

o Initial value or new value (that replaces a previous value)

cans = 7 # changes the value

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Variable Definition
▪ To define a variable, you must specify a name and an initial value.
o cans = 4 # defines & initializes the variable cans

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Visualizing variables: http://pythontutor.com/

Values
and types
Variable names

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The assignment statement
▪ Use the assignment statement = to place a new value into a
variable: the variable name will now refer to the new value
o cans = 4 # define cans and initialize to 4
o cans = 6 # change the value referred by cans, now refers
to the value 6
▪ Beware: the = sign is NOT used for comparison:
o It copies the value on the right side into the variable on the left side
o You will learn about the comparison operator in the next chapter

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Assignment syntax
▪ The value computed on the right of the '=' sign is assigned to the
variable on the left

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An example: soda deal
▪ Soft drinks are sold in cans and bottles. A store offers a six-pack of
12-ounce cans for the same price as a two-liter bottle. Which
should you buy? (12 fluid ounces equal approximately 0.355 liters.)
List of variables: Type of Number
Number of cans per pack Whole number
Ounces per can Whole number
Ounces per bottle Number with fraction

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Why different types?
▪ We saw three different types of data:
o A whole number (no fractional part) 7 (integer or int)
o A number with a fraction part 8.88 (float)
o A sequence of characters "Bob" (string)

▪ The type is associated with the value, not the variable

o cansPerPack = 6 # int
o canVolume = 12.0 # float

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Updating a Variable (assigning a value)
▪ If an existing variable is assigned a new value, that value replaces
the previous contents of the variable.
▪ For example:
o cansPerPack = 6
o cansPerPack = 8

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Updating a Variable (computed)
▪ Executing the Assignment:
o cansPerPack = cansPerPack + 2
▪ Step by Step:
o Step 1: Calculate the right hand side of the assignment.
Find the value of cansPerPack, and add 2 to it.

o Step 2: Store the result in the variable named on the left side of the
assignment operator

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Undefined Variables
▪ You must define (and initialize) a variable before you use it: (i.e. it
must be defined somewhere above the line of code where you first
use the variable)
o canVolume = 12 * literPerOunce
o literPerOunce = 0.0296
o Will cause a NameError: name 'literPerOunce' is not defined
▪ The correct order for the statements is:
o literPerOunce = 0.0296
o canVolume = 12 * literPerOunce

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Data types
▪ The data type is associated with the value and not the variable.
Therefore:
▪ A variable can be assigned different values of different types, at
different places in a program

o taxRate = 5 # an int
Then later…
o taxRate = 5.5 # a float
And then
o taxRate = "Non-taxable" # a string

▪ If you use a variable and it has an unexpected type an error will occur in
your program

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Example…
▪ Open PyCharm (or repl.it) and create a new project

▪ # Testing different types in the same variable

taxRate = 5 # int
print(taxRate)
taxrate = 5.5 # float
print(taxRate)
taxRate = "Non-taxable" # string
print(taxRate)

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But…
▪ taxRate = "Non-taxable" # string
print(taxRate)
print(taxRate + 5)
o Generates: TypeError: can only concatenate str (not "int") to
str

▪ print(taxRate + "??")
o Prints Non-taxable??

▪ So…
o Once you have initialized a variable with a value of a particular type you should
take great care to keep storing values of the same type in the variable

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Caveats
▪ You should try the operations that are valid according to the
current value of the variable, only
o Remember which type each variable refers to

▪ When you use the “+” operator with strings the second argument
is concatenated to the end of the first, but both arguments must
be strings
o We’ll cover string operations in more detail later in this chapter

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Table 1: Number Literals in Python

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Naming variables
▪ Use These Simple Rules
o Variable names must start with a letter or the underscore ( _ ) character
• Continue with letters (upper or lower case), digits or the underscore
o You cannot use other symbols (? or %, ...) nor spaces
o Separate words with ‘camelCase’ notation
• Use upper case letters to signify word boundaries
o Don’t use ‘reserved’ Python words (see Appendix C, pages A6 and A7)

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Table 2: Variable Names in Python

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Tip: Use Descriptive Variable Names
▪ Choose descriptive variable names
▪ Which variable name is more self descriptive?
o canVolume = 0.35
o cv = 0.355
▪ This is particularly important when programs are written by more
than one person.

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Constants
▪ In Python a constant is a variable whose value should not be changed
after it’s assigned an initial value.
▪ It is a good practice to use all caps when naming constants
o BOTTLE_VOLUME = 2.0
▪ It is good style to use named constants to explain numerical values to be
used in calculations: Which is clearer?
o totalVolume = bottles * 2
o totalVolume = bottles * BOTTLE_VOLUME
▪ A programmer reading the first statement may not understand the
significance of the “2”
▪ Python will let you change the value of a constant
o Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should do it

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Constants: Naming & Style
▪ It is customary to use all UPPER_CASE letters for constants to
distinguish them from variables.
o It is a nice visual way cue
▪ BOTTLE_VOLUME = 2 # Constant
▪ MAX_SIZE = 100 # Constant
▪ taxRate = 5 # Variable

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Python comments
▪ Use comments at the beginning of each program, and to clarify
details of the code
▪ Comments are a courtesy to others and a way to document your
thinking
o Comments to add explanations for humans who read your code
▪ The compiler ignores comments
o Other programmers will read them
o Even yourself, tomorrow
Documentation is a love letter that you write to
your future self. Damian Conway (2005).
“Perl Best Practices”, p.153, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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Commenting Code
##
# This program computes the volume (in liters) of a six-pack of soda
# cans and the total volume of a six-pack and a two-liter bottle
#

# Liters in a 12-ounce can

CAN_VOLUME = 0.355

# Liters in a two-liter bottle.

BOTTLE_VOLUME = 2

# Number of cans per pack.

cansPerPack = 6

# Calculate total volume in the cans.

totalVolume = cansPerPack * CAN_VOLUME
print("A six-pack of 12-ounce cans contains", totalVolume, "liters.")

# Calculate total volume in the cans and a 2-liter bottle.

totalVolume = totalVolume + BOTTLE_VOLUME
print("A six-pack and a two-liter bottle contain", totalVolume, "liters.")

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Arithmetic 2.2

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Basic Arithmetic Operations
▪ Python supports all basic arithmetic operations:
o Addition +
o Subtraction -
o Multiplication *
o Division /
o Exponent **
▪ Use parentheses to write expressions

b * ((1 + r / 100) ** n)

▪ Precedence is similar to Algebra:

o PEMDAS
• Parenthesis, Exponent, Multiply/Divide, Add/Subtract

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Mixing numeric types
▪ If you mix integer and floating-point values in an arithmetic
expression, the result is a floating-point value.
▪ 7 + 4.0 # Yields the floating value 11.0

▪ 4 and 4.0 are different data types, for a computer

▪ Remember:
o If you mix strings with integer or floating-point values the result is an error

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Floor division
▪ When you divide two integers with the / operator, you get a
floating-point value.
o For example, 7 / 4 yields 1.75
▪ We can also perform floor division or integer division using the
// operator.
o The “//” operator computes the quotient and discards the fractional part
o For example, 7 // 4 evaluates to 1
• In fact, 7 divided by 4 is 1.75 with a fractional part of 0.75, which is
discarded.
o Only for integer numbers

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Calculating a remainder
▪ If you are interested in the remainder of dividing two integers, use
the “%” operator (called modulus):
o remainder = 7 % 4
▪ The value of remainder will be 3
▪ Sometimes called “modulo division”
▪ Only for integer numbers

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Example
# Convert pennies to dollars and cents
pennies = 1729
dollars = pennies // 100 # Calculates the number
of dollars
cents = pennies % 100 # Calculates the number
of pennies
print("I have", dollars, "and", cents, "cents")

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Integer Division and Remainder Examples

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Calling functions
▪ A function is a collection of programming instructions that carry
out a particular task.
▪ The print() function can display information, but there are many
other functions available in Python
o You will learn to call the available functions, and to create your own
▪ When calling a function you must provide the correct number of
arguments (also called parameters)
o The program will generate an error message if you don’t

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Calling functions that return a value
▪ Most functions return a value. That is, when the function
completes its task, it passes a value back to the point where the
function was called.
▪ For example:
o The call abs(-173) returns the value 173.
o The value returned by a function can be used in an expression or can be
stored in a variable:
• distance = abs(x)

▪ You can use a function call as an argument to the print function

o print(abs(-173))

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Built-in Mathematical Functions

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Python libraries (modules)
▪ A library is a collection of code (e.g., functions, constants, data
types), written and compiled by someone else, that is ready for
you to use in your program
o Always check the documentation before using
▪ The standard library is a library that is considered part of the
language and is included with any Python system
o https://docs.python.org/3/library/index.html
▪ Libraries (including the standard library) are organized in modules
o Related functions and data types are grouped into the same module.
o Functions defined in a module must be explicitly loaded into your program
before they can be used

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Libraries, modules, functions
▪ Built-in functions
o Always available (such as print(), abs(), …)
▪ Standard library
o Part of every Python installation
o Organized in modules
o Each module contains many functions
o Before using the functions, you must import the module
▪ Additional libraries
o Not part of Python
o Must be downloaded/installed in your project (using the IDE or with
command line tools)
o After being installed, they can be imported and functions may be used

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Built-in functions (always available)

https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html

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Standard Library functions
▪ The sqrt() function, which computes the square root of its
argument, is in the ‘math’ module of the standard library
o https://docs.python.org/3/library/math.html

# First include this statement at the top of your

# program file.
from math import sqrt

# Then you can simply call the function as

y = sqrt(x)

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Some Functions from the Math Module

from math import xxxxx

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Importing modules
▪ Three ways to import functions from modules:
o from math import sqrt, sin, cos
# imports listed functions
o from math import *
# imports all functions from the module
o import math
# imports the module and gives access to all functions
▪ If you use the last style you have to add the module name and a “.”
before each function call
o import math
o y = math.sqrt(x)

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Floating-point to integer conversion
▪ You can use the function int() and float() to convert between
integer and floating-point values:
balance = total + tax # balance: float
dollars = int(balance) # dollars: integer
▪ You lose the fractional part of the floating-point value (no rounding
occurs)

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Floating-point to integer conversion
Function Definition
math.floor(x) Return the floor of x, the largest integer less than or equal to x
math.ceil(x) Return the ceiling of x, the smallest integer greater than or equal to x.
math.trunc(x) Return the real value x truncated to an integer (not the same as floor, for negative
numbers!)
round(x,d) Return x rounded to d digits precision after the decimal point. If d is omitted or is
None, it returns the nearest integer to its input.
int(x) Return an integer object constructed from a number or string x. For floating point
numbers, this truncates towards zero. For strings, it converts the string to an
integer

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Roundoff Errors / Rounding Errors
▪ Floating point values are not exact
o This is a limitation of binary values; not all floating-point numbers have an exact
representation
▪ Try this:
price = 4.35
quantity = 100
total = price * quantity
# Should be 100 * 4.35 = 435.00
print(total) # prints 434.99999999999994
▪ You can deal with roundoff errors by
o Rounding to the nearest integer (see Section 2.2.4)
o Displaying a fixed number of digits after the decimal separator (see Section 2.5.3)
o Defining a “tolerance” EPSILON and do only approximate comparisons (see Section
3.2, and see math.isclose())

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Arithmetic Expressions

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Unbalanced Parentheses
▪ Consider the expression
((a + b) * t / 2 * (1 - t)
o What is wrong with the expression?
▪ Now consider this expression.
(a + b) * t) / (2 * (1 - t)
o This expression has three “(” and three “)”, but it still is not correct
▪ At any point in an expression the count of “(“ must be greater
than or equal to the count of “)”
▪ At the end of the expression the two counts must be the same

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Programming Tips
▪ Use Spaces in expressions
totalCans = fullCans + emptyCans
o Is easier to read than
totalCans=fullCans+emptyCans

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Problem Solving
Exercise 2.3

DEVELOP THE ALGORITHM FIRST, THEN WRITE PYTHON CODE

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Problem Solving: First by Hand
▪ A very important step for developing an algorithm is to first carry
out the computations by hand.
o If you can’t compute a solution by hand, how do you write the program?
▪ Example Problem:
o A row of black and white tiles needs to be placed along a wall. For aesthetic
reasons, the architect has specified that the first and last tile shall be black.
o Your task is to compute the number of tiles needed and the gap at each
end, given the space available and the width of each tile.

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Start with example values
▪ Givens
o Total width: 100 inches
o Tile width: 5 inches
▪ Test your values
▪ Let’s see… 100/5 = 20, perfect! 20 tiles. No gap.
o But wait… BW…BW “…first and last tile shall be black.””
▪ Look more carefully at the problem….
o Start with one black, then some number of WB pairs

▪ Observation: each pair is 2x width of 1 tile

o In our example, 2 x 5 = 10 inches

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Keep applying your solution
o Total width: 100 inches
o Tile width: 5 inches

▪ Calculate total width of all tiles

o One black tile: 5 in
o 9 pairs of BWs: 90 in
o Total tile width: 95 in
▪ Calculate gaps (one on each end)
o 100 – 95 = 5 in = total gap
o 5 in gap / 2 = 2.5 in, at each end

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Now devise an algorithm
▪ Use your example to see how you calculated values
▪ How many pairs?
o Note: must be a whole number
o Integer part of: (total width – tile width) / ( 2 x tile width )
▪ How many tiles?
o 1 + 2 x the number of pairs
▪ Gap at each end
o (total width – number of tiles x tile width) / 2

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The algorithm
▪ Calculate the number of pairs of tiles
o Number of pairs = integer part of (total width – tile width) / (2 * tile width)
▪ Calculate the number of tiles
o Number of tiles = 1 + (2 * number of pairs)
▪ Calculate the gap
o Gap at each end = (total width – number of tiles * tile width / 2)
▪ Print the number of pairs of tiles
▪ Print the total number of tiles in the row
▪ Print the gap

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Strings 2.4

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Strings
▪ Basic definitions:
o Text consists of characters
o Characters are letters, numbers, punctuation marks, spaces, ….
o A string is a sequence of characters
▪ In Python, string literals are specified by enclosing a sequence of
characters within a matching pair of either single or double quotes.
print("This is a string.", 'So is this.')
▪ By allowing both types of delimiters, Python makes it easy to
include an apostrophe or quotation mark within a string.
o message = 'He said "Hello"'
o Remember to use matching pairs of quotes: single with single, double with
double

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String Length
▪ The number of characters in a string is called the length of the
string.
o Example, the length of "Harry" is 5
▪ You can compute the length of a string using Python’s len()
function:
length = len("World!") # length is 6
▪ A string of length 0 is called the empty string. It contains no
characters and is written as "" or ''.

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String Concatenation (“+”)
▪ You can ‘add’ one String onto the end of another
firstName = "Harry"
lastName = "Morgan"
name = firstName + lastName # HarryMorgan
print("my name is:", name)
▪ You wanted a space in between the two names?
name = firstName + " " + lastName # Harry Morgan

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Note
▪ Using “+” to concatenate strings is an example of a concept called
operator overloading.
▪ The “+” operator performs different functions, depending on the
types of the involved values:
o integer + integer → integer addition
o float + float, float + integer → float addition
o string + string → string concatenation
o list + list → list concatenation
o…
▪ But…
o string + integer → error

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String repetition (“*”)
▪ You can also produce a string that is the result of repeating a string
multiple times
▪ Suppose you need to print a dashed line
▪ Instead of specifying a literal string with 50 dashes, you can use the
* operator to create a string that is comprised of the string "-"
repeated 50 times
dashes = "-" * 50
o results in the string
"-------------------------------------------------"
▪ The “*” operator is also overloaded

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Converting Numbers to Strings
▪ Use the str() function to convert between numbers and strings.
balance = 888.88
dollars = 888
balanceAsString = str(balance)
dollarsAsString = str(dollars)
print(balanceAsString)
print(dollarsAsString)

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Converting Strings to Numbers
▪ To turn a string containing a number into a numerical value, we use
the int() and float() functions:
id = int("1729")
price = float("17.29")
print(id)
print(price)
▪ This conversion is important when the strings come from user
input

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Conversion errors
▪ You cannot convert a character’s string into a number, it is
necessary to have a string made of digits to do so:
▪ Example:
o val = int(″20″)

o val = int(″Hola″)
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with
base 10: ‘Hola'

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Strings and Characters
▪ Strings are sequences of characters
▪ Strings are immutable: they cannot be modified after their creation
o The same variable can be updated to refer to another string, however

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Extracting a character from a String
▪ Each character inside a String has an index number:
index
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
c h a r s h e r e character

▪ The first character has index zero (0)

o The last character has index len(name)-1
▪ The [] operator returns a character at a given index inside a
String:
0 1 2 3 4
name = "Harry"
H a r r y
first = name[0]
last = name[4]
name[0] name[4]

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 Valid index
▪ The only valid indexes are from 0 to len(string)-1
▪ Invalid indexes will generate an error
o IndexError: string index out of range.

name = 'Bob' Bob has length 3

print(name, 'has length', len(name)) B
print(name[0]) o
print(name[1]) b
print(name[2]) Traceback (most recent call last):
print(name[3]) File "main.py", line 6, in <module>
print(name[3])
IndexError: string index out of range

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 Immutability
▪ Strings are immutable in python
▪ You can’t change the value of a character
o A TypeError occurs

name = 'Bob' B
Traceback (most recent call last):
print(name[0]) File "main.py", line 5, in <module>
name[0] = 'G'
name[0] = 'G' TypeError: 'str' object does not support
item assignment

▪ Workaround: we will learn how to build a new ‘updated’ string

instead of modifying the current one

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String slices
▪ It is possible to extract a part of a string or slice
▪ Given a string:
oname = ʺnever odd or evenʺ
▪ If we want the string slice from character 4 (index 3→’e’) included,
to 8 (index 7 → ‘d’) not included
▪ stringSlice = name[3:7]
▪ The string slice contains characters in indexes 3, 4, 5 and 6.
oʺer oʺ

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String slices - 2
▪ Examples
▪ name[ : 6] → ʺnever odd or evenʺ
o All the characters included from the first one (index 0) to the 6° one, (index
6 not included)
▪ name[6 : ] → ʺnever odd or evenʺ
o Characters from the 7° to the last one inlcluded
▪ name[ : ]
o All the characters included, it makes a copy of the string

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String portions
▪ A string portion can be extracted providing start, stop and step
indexes
▪ name[3:8:2] → ʺnever odd or evenʺ
o Include all the characters from 3 to 8 using an increment of 2 of the index
steps.
▪ name[::2] → ʺnever odd or evenʺ
o Include all the characters in even indexes

▪ name[1::2] → ʺnever odd or evenʺ

o Include all the characters in odd indexes

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String Operations

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Characters
▪ Characters are stored as integer values
o See the ASCII subset on Unicode chart in Appendix A
o For example, the letter ‘H’ has an ASCII value of 72
▪ Python uses Unicode characters
o Unicode defines over 100,000 characters
o Unicode was designed to be able to encode text in essentially all written
languages
o https://home.unicode.org/ and http://www.unicode.org/charts/

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 ASCII codes

For Unicode characters see: https://unicode-table.com/

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 Character conversions

ASCII/Unicode
Character
value (integer)
'x'
120

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Functions vs Methods
▪ Python is an object-oriented language, and all values are objects.
o Object-oriented programming is out of the scope of the course, we will only
see some very practical aspect
▪ Every object may have methods, i.e., functions that can be called
on that specific object, using a syntax object.method()
▪ Example: all strings have an upper() method that returns a new
string, converted to upper case
name = "John Smith"
# Sets uppercaseName to "JOHN SMITH"
uppercaseName = name.upper()

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 Functions vs Methods – what to Remember
FUNCTION METHOD

▪ Functions are general and can accept ▪ Methods are specific to a type of
arguments of different types object
o All strings have a group of methods
▪ Functions are called directly, with a list
o All integers have a group of methods
of parameters
o…
o exmp. func(param), print(a)

▪ Functions may return a result, that may ▪ Methods are called with the dot-syntax
be stored in a variable o object.method()
o result = func(param) ▪ Methods may return a result, that may
be stored in a variable
o result = obj.method()

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Some Useful String Methods

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String Escape Sequences
▪ How would you print a double quote?
o Preface the " with a “\” inside the double quoted String
print("He said \"Hello\"")

▪ OK, then how do you print a backslash?

o Preface the \ with another \
print("C:\\Temp\\Secret.txt")

▪ Special characters inside Strings

*
o Output a newline with a ‘\n’
**
print("*\n**\n***")
***

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Summary

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Summary: variables
▪ A variable is a storage location with a name.
▪ When defining a variable, you must specify an initial value.
▪ By convention, variable names should start with a lower case letter.
▪ An assignment statement stores a new value in a variable,
replacing the previously stored value.

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Summary: operators
▪ The assignment operator = does not denote mathematical
equality.
▪ Variables whose initial value should not change are typically
capitalized by convention.
▪ The / operator performs a division yielding a value that may have a
fractional value.
▪ The // operator performs an integer division, the remainder is
discarded.
▪ The % operator computes the remainder of a floor division.

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Summary: python overview
▪ The Python library declares many mathematical functions, such as
sqrt() and abs()
▪ You can convert between integers, floats and strings using the
respective functions: int(), float(), str()
▪ Python libraries are grouped into modules. Use the import
statement to use methods from a module.

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Summary: Strings
▪ Strings are sequences of characters.
▪ The len() function yields the number of characters in a String.
▪ Use the + operator to concatenate Strings; that is, to put them
together to yield a longer String.
▪ In order to perform a concatenation, the + operator requires both
arguments to be strings. Numbers must be converted to strings
using the str() function.
▪ String index numbers are counted starting with 0.

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Summary: Strings
▪ Use the [ ] operator to extract the elements (single characters) of
a String
▪ Use the operator [a:b] to extract slices of the string or [a:b:c] to
use a different index step during the extraction.

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