CS115
INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING IN PYTHON
Strings, Selection Statements (Branching)
Strings
Strings are a sequence of case sensitive characters.
May be letters, special characters, spaces, digits.
Strings are enclosed in quotation marks or single quotes.
hi = "hello there"
ch = 'a'
Strings may contain numeric values, but the values are stored as Strings.
num = 57
numStr = "56"
Can compare strings with ==, >, < etc.
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String Operations – len()
Python offers a number of functions that can be applied to a string.
We can find the length of strings, searching strings, finding substrings.
len(str): returns the number of characters in a string
In [3]:len("abc")
Out[3]: 3
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String Operations – Indexing
Each character in a string has an index or position.
In Python, indexing starts from zero to indicate the first element of a string.
Square brackets are used to get the value at a certain index/position
s = "abc"
s[0] evaluates to 'a'
s[1] evaluates to 'b'
s[2] evaluates to 'c'
s[3] trying to index out of bounds, error
s[-1] evaluates to 'c'
s[-2] evaluates to 'b'
s[-3] evaluates to 'a'
index: 0 1 2 indexing always starts at 0
index: -3 -2 -1 last element always at index -1
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String Operations – Indexing
Indexing can be used to extract individual characters from a string.
If the index given is outside the bounds of the string, an error message will be displayed.
s[3]
IndexError: string index out of range
If negative indexes are given, indexing starts from the end of the string.
s[-1]
Out[5]: 'c'
s[-2]
Out[6]: 'b'
s[-3]
Out[7]: 'a'
s[-4]
IndexError: string index out of range
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String Operations – Slicing
Slicing is used to extract substrings of specified length.
If s is a string, the expression s[start:end] denotes the substring of s that starts at index
start and ends at index (end-1).
Examples:
s = "hello world!"
s[0:len(s)]
Out[8]: 'hello world!'
s[0:len(s)-1]
Out[9]: 'hello world'
s[6]
Out[10]: 'w'
s[6:11]
Out[11]: 'world'
s[:]
Out[11]: 'hello world!'
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String Operations – Slicing
Can slice strings using [start:end:step]
If you give two numbers, [start:end], step = 1 by default
You can also omit numbers and leave just colons
s = "abcdefgh"
s[3:6] -> evaluates to "def", same as s[3:6:1]
s[3:6:2] -> evaluates to "df"
s[::] -> evaluates to "abcdefgh", same as s[0:len(s):1]
s[::-1] -> evaluates to "hgfedcba", same as s[-1:-(len(s)+1):-1]
s[4:1:-2] -> evaluates to "ec"
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String Concatenation
String concatenation operator (+) : joins two strings.
name = "ana"
name = 'ana'
greet = 'hi' + name
greeting = 'hi' + " " + name
To join data of other types to string, you must first convert the data to a string using the str()
function.
"a" + 5
TypeError: must be str, not int
"a" + str(5) -> "a5"
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String Repetition Operator
Repetition operator (*): the expression n * s, where n is an integer value and
s is a string, evaluates to a String with n repeats of s.
Just as 3 * 2 is equal to 2 + 2 + 2, the expression 3 * "a" is equivalent to
"a" + "a" + "a" ("aaa").
Example of operations performed on a string as defined in Python docs.
silly = 'hi' + " " + name * 3
Error:
'a' * 'a'
TypeError: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type 'str'
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Input
Python 3 has a function that can be used to get input directly from the user.
Input Program Output
input() print()
Example:
text = input("Type anything:") #Prints whatever is in quotes.
Type anything: hi #User types something, hits enter.
print(3 * text) #Binds that value to a variable.
hihihi
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Input Strings and Type Casting
The input() function returns a string
Example:
name = input("Enter your name: ")
Enter your name: Lisa
print(type(name))
<class 'str'>
age = input("Enter your age: ")
Enter your age: 30
print(type(age))
<class 'str'>
If working with numbers, you must cast the return string
num = int(input("Type a number... "))
print(5*num)
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Input/Output Example:
Note the difference between outputting string using the concatenation operator versus the
comma in the print statements below.
name = input("Enter your name: ")
Enter your name: Lisa
print("Are you really " + name +"?")
Are you really Lisa?
print("Are you really",name,"?")
Are you really Lisa ?
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Character Encoding
For a computer, there is no text, only bytes.
Text is an interpretation, a way to visualize bytes in human-readable form. And if you interpret bytes wrong, you
get strange looking characters, or an error.
Character encoding is one specific way of interpreting bytes: It's a look-up table that says, for example, that a byte
with the value 97 stands for 'a'.
By default, Python assumes the character encoding format, UTF-8.
To define a source code encoding, a magic comment must be placed into the source files either as first or second
line in the file, such as:
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*- or coding = < ISO-8859-9 >
Python has built-in functions: ord() and chr()
ord(char) to get numerical code for character char chr(num) to get
corresponding character for integer num
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Example:
Write a script that inputs the hourly wage of an employee and the number of hours
worked and calculates and displays the employee’s salary.
hourly_wage=float(input('Enter your hourly wage: '))
hours=int(input('How many hours have you worked? '))
salary=hourly_wage * hours
print('Your salary is: ' + str(salary) + ' $')
Sample Run:
Enter your hourly wage: 12.5
How many hours have you worked? 37
Your salary is: 462.5 $
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Flow of Control
The order of statement execution is called the flow of control
Unless specified otherwise, the order of statement execution through a method
is linear: one after another
Some programming statements allow us to make decisions and perform
repetitions
These decisions are based on boolean expressions (also called conditions) that
evaluate to true or false
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Conditional Statements and Boolean
Expressions
A conditional statement lets us choose which statement will be
executed next
Conditional statements are implemented using if/else statements.
Boolean expression is any expression that evaluates to true of
false.
Boolean expression may include arithmetic expressions, logical
and relational operators, etc.
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Comparing Values – Relational
Operators
A condition often uses one of Python’s equality operators or
relational operators, which all return boolean results:
== equal to
!= not equal to
< less than
> greater than
<= less than or equal to
>= greater than or equal to
Note the difference between the equality operator (==) and the
assignment operator (=)
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COMPARISON OPERATORS ON
int, float, string
Assume i and j are variable names
The comparisons below evaluate to a Boolean
i > j
i >= j
i < j
i <= j
i == j => equality test, True if i is the same as j
i != j => inequality test, True if i not the same as j
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COMPARISON OPERATORS – in, not in
Python has two operators that can also be applied to strings, in, not in
These operators are used to test for membership in a group.
Usage:
<string> <operator> <string>
Example
'way' in 'John Wayne'
Out[1]: False
'way'.lower() in 'John Wayne'.lower()
Out[2]: True
'was' not in 'I was happy'
Out[3]: False
'was' not in 'I am happy'
Out[4]: True
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LOGIC OPERATORS ON bools
Assume a and b are variable names (with Boolean values)
not a -> True if a is False
False if a is True
a and b -> True if both are True
False if either is False
a or b -> True if either or both are True
False if neither are True
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Python Operator Precedence
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Branching - IF Statements
condition
evaluated
true false
statement
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Branching - IF Statements
The condition must be a
if is a boolean expression. It must
Python evaluate to either true or
reserved false.
word
if condition :
statement
If the condition is true, the statement is
executed.
If it is false, the statement is skipped.
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Indentation
Semantically meaningful in Python.
Most other programming languages ignore whitespace, and indentation is for the reader of
the code.
Python is unusual in that indentation is required and is strictly enforced during execution.
Example:
x = 5 x = 5 x = 5
if x > 10: if x > 10: if x > 10:
print( x ) print( x ) print( x )
print("done") print("done")
Output: ERROR
Output: Output: -
done
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Branching - IF Statements (Example)
if(num % 2) == 0 :
print ( ‘num is even’)
#non-zero values evaluate to True
if 5:
print( "Condition is true" )
#zero values evaluate to false
if 0:
print( "Condition is false" )
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Example: Write a script that inputs the hourly wage of an employee and the number of
hours worked and calculates and displays the employee’s salary. The employee will receive
100$ if he/she has worked more than 40 hours.
hourly_wage=float(input('Enter your hourly wage: ‘))
hours=int(input('How many hours have you worked? ‘))
salary=hourly_wage * hours
if hours > 40:
salary +=100
print('Your salary is: ' + str(salary) + ' $’)
Sample Run:
Enter your hourly wage: 12.5
How many hours have you worked? 50
Your salary is: 725.0 $
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if/else Statement
condition
evaluated
true false
statement1 statement2
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if/else Statement
An else clause can be added to an if statement to make an if-else statement
if condition:
statement1
else:
statement2
If the condition is true, statement1 is executed; if the condition is false, statement2 is executed
One or the other will be executed, but not both
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Example:
x , y = 2 , 3
if x > y:
print('x is larger')
else:
print(‘x is not larger')
print('Done')
Output:
x is not larger
Done
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Example: Write a script that inputs the hourly wage of an employee and the number of hours worked
and calculates and displays the employee’s salary. The employee will receive 50% more for each extra
hour he/she has worked above 40 hours.
hourly_wage=float(input('Enter your hourly wage: '));
hours=int(input('How many hours have you worked? '));
if hours < 40:
salary=hourly_wage * hours
else:
salary=40*hourly_wage + (hours-40)*hourly_wage*1.5
print('Your salary is: ' + str(salary) + ' $')
Sample Run:
Enter your hourly wage: 20
How many hours have you worked? 60
Your salary is: 1400.0 $
See: 02_employee.py
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Nested IF Statements (if/elif)
condition
1
statement
group 1 condition
2
statement statement
group 2 group 3
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Example:
x , y = 2 , 2
if x > y:
print('x is larger')
elif x < y:
print('y is larger')
else:
print('x is equal to y')
print('Done')
Output:
x is equal to y
Done
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Assigning letter grades to students
Range Grade
100 >= grade >90 A
90 >= grade > 80 B
80 >= grade > 70 C
70 >= grade > 60 D
grade <= 60 F
See: 02_letter_grade.py
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Exercises (02_exercises.py)
1. Input a number from the user, and output ‘[number] is divisible by 5 or 7’ if the number is divisible by 5
or 7.
2. Write a Python program that initializes a number between 1-9 and prompts the user to guess the
number. If the user guesses incorrectly display the message, “Wrong Guess!”, on successful guess, user
will see a "Well guessed!" message.
3. Input a word and give an appropriate message if the word has the same letter at the beginning and the
end of the word or not.
4. Input a user’s height (in metres) and weight (in kgs) and calculate his/her BMI and output the BMI
category according the following:
bmi >= 30 Obese
25 <= bmi <30 Overweight
20 <= bmi <25 Normal
bmi < 20 Underweight
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Terms of Use
⮚ This presentation was adapted from lecture materials provided in MIT Introduction to
Computer Science and Programming in Python.
⮚ Licenced under terms of Creative Commons License.
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