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Python Copy Strings

Today's document discusses different ways to copy a string in Python. Strings are immutable in Python, so they cannot be directly copied by assigning one variable to another. The document outlines three main ways to copy a string: 1) Using an empty string and concatenation, 2) Slicing the string to copy a subset, and 3) Using the built-in str() function to copy the full string. Examples are provided for each approach.

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NisAr Ahmad
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63 views

Python Copy Strings

Today's document discusses different ways to copy a string in Python. Strings are immutable in Python, so they cannot be directly copied by assigning one variable to another. The document outlines three main ways to copy a string: 1) Using an empty string and concatenation, 2) Slicing the string to copy a subset, and 3) Using the built-in str() function to copy the full string. Examples are provided for each approach.

Uploaded by

NisAr Ahmad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Python copy string

Today, we are going to discuss strings in python. We will discuss strings, how to manipulate strings using
python, how to copy strings, etc.
So, let’s start with the basic intuition of strings. Strings are basically an array. Characters are arranged in a
string. In Python, a string is anything enclosed in quotations. Additionally, you can use single or double
quotations. For instance: message = "This is a Python string." This is also a string, the message says.
Website = 'GoLinuxCloud'
Programming_language = "Python"

We can define strings using a single quotation or double quotation as shown in the above code snippet.
Before discussing the many ways to copy a string in Python, it is essential to remember that a string
cannot be duplicated and copied directly. Strings in Python are permanent, which means that their value
cannot change while the program is running. Because strings are immutable, they cannot be copied
directly.
You may think that we can copy the strings as shown below:
website = 'GoLinuxCloud'
copy = website
print(copy)

Output:
GoLinuxCloud

We have declared a variable website and assigned it a string value, we have declared another variable
called copy and we assigned the value of website to it. In this case, we are actually not copying the string,
This would not duplicate the initial string. Instead, the same string would be referenced by both newly
formed variables.
In this article, we are discussing how we can copy a string, there are some ways where you can easily
copy the string value. Let’s discuss this one by one.

Using an empty string to copy a string:


We can copy a string value from one variable to another variable by using an empty string. The empty
string will be concatenated with the actual string that we are copying. To do this, we must declare the new
string and use the concatenation operator (+) to join the new string to the original string. We will take the
above example to understand this very well.

Example: copying a string using an empty string in python:

website = 'GoLinuxCloud'
copy = '' + website
print(copy)

Output:
GoLinuxCloud

In the code snippet above, we are copying a string from a variable website to another variable called copy,
As you can see that we have initialized an empty string using two single quotes (‘’) and we are using the
concatenation operator (+) to combine the empty string with the actual string. This way, we are copying
the whole string value from one variable to another.

Using slicing to copy a string:


In Python, we can use slicing to slice the sequence of strings. The slicing function returns the sliced
object, the best thing about slicing in python is that we can specify from where to start slicing the
sequence and where to stop. We can use the slice() function and slice operator (:). To slice the original
string and create a new one, use the slice or the (:) operator. The syntax of the slicing operator requires a
start value and an index value. The old string would be transferred unchanged to the new variable if
neither of these values is given.

Example: copying a string using slicing in python


Have a look at the code below where slicing is used to copy the string from one variable to another.
website = 'GoLinuxCloud'
copy = website[:]
print(copy)

Output:
GoLinuxCloud

We are not giving any starting point and ending, so the (:) will copy the whole string from the first
variable to the second one. Let’s understand this better by giving starting and ending points.
website = 'GoLinuxCloud'
copy = website[0:2]
print(copy)

Output:
Go

We are now giving a starting point and the ending point to copy the string. The slicer will now take the
first two characters from the string and copy them to the next variable.

website = 'GoLinuxCloud'
copy = website[2:7]
print(copy)

Output:
Linux

Here, we are giving the starting point 2 which means that it will miss the first two characters and copy up
to the 7 characters.

Using str() to copy a string:


There is a very well know built-in function in python which is the str() function. This function takes a
string as a parameter and returns the original string as the copy. So this function can also be used to copy
a string. Let’s see an example using the str() function.

Example: copying a string using str()


website = 'GoLinuxCloud'
copy = str(website)
print(copy)
Output:
GoLinuxCloud
Wow! The str() function is very easy to use and it copied the string from one variable to another. But str()
returns the copy of a string as a whole. If you want to copy some of the characters from the string then
slicing is the best way.
That’s all for today. Stay connected.
Thank you!

Summary:

Today, we discussed how you can copy a string from one variable to another variable. You cannot directly
copy a string by assigning the string variable next to another, it will not copy the string but reference it
only. We discussed some other ways which can be used to copy the original string.

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