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UNIT-3: Python Strings and Operators
3.1 Python Strings:
Python string is the collection of the characters surrounded by single quotes, double
quotes, or triple quotes. The computer does not understand the characters; internally, it
stores manipulated character as the combination of the 0's and 1's. Each character is
encoded in the ASCII or Unicode character. So we can say that Python strings are also
called the collection of Unicode characters.
In Python, strings can be created by enclosing the character or the sequence of
characters in the quotes. Python allows us to use single quotes, double quotes, or triple
quotes to create the string.
Consider the following example in Python to create a string.
str1 = "Hi Python !"
print(type(str1))
In Python, strings are treated as the sequence of characters, which means that Python
doesn't support the character data-type; instead, a single character written as 'p' is
treated as the string of length 1.

3.1.1 Multiline string, String as character array, triple quotes

Creating String in Python
We can create a string by enclosing the characters in single-quotes or double- quotes.
Python also provides triple-quotes to represent the string, but it is generally used for
multiline string or docstrings.
#Using single quotes
str1 = 'Hello Python'
print(str1)
#Using double quotes
str2 = "Hello Python"
print(str2)

#Using triple quotes

str3 = '''Triple quotes are generally used for
represent the multiline or
docstring'''
print(str3)
Output:
Hello Python
Hello Python
Triple quotes are generally used for
represent the multiline or
docstring

3.1.2 Slicing string, negative indexing, string length, concatenation

Strings indexing and Slicing (splitting)
Like other languages, the indexing of the Python strings starts from 0. For example, The
string "HELLO" is indexed as given in the below figure.

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Consider the following example:

str = "HELLO"
print(str[0])
print(str[1])
print(str[2])
print(str[3])
print(str[4])
print(str[6]) # It returns the IndexError because 6th index doesn't exist
Output:
H
E
L
L
O
IndexError: string index out of range

As shown in Python, the slice operator [] is used to access the individual characters of
the string. However, we can use the : (colon) operator in Python to access the substring
from the given string. Consider the following example.

Figure: String with Slice operator

Here, we must notice that the upper range given in the slice operator is always exclusive
i.e., if str = 'HELLO' is given, then str[1:3] will always include str[1] = 'E', str[2] = 'L'
and nothing else.
Example:
str = "JAVATPOINT"
# Start Oth index to end
print(str[0:])
# Starts 1th index to 4th index
print(str[1:5])
# Starts 2nd index to 3rd index
print(str[2:4])
# Starts 0th to 2nd index
print(str[:3])
#Starts 4th to 6th index

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print(str[4:7])
Output:
JAVATPOINT
AVAT
VA
JAV
TPO

We can do the negative slicing in the string; it starts from the rightmost character, which
is indicated as -1. The second rightmost index indicates -2, and so on. Consider the
following image.

Figure: Negative slicing in the string

Consider the following example

str = 'JAVATPOINT'
print(str[-1])
print(str[-3])
print(str[-2:])
print(str[-4:-1])
print(str[-7:-2])
print(str[::-1]) # Reversing the given string
print(str[-12])
Output:
T
I
NT
OIN
ATPOI
TNIOPTAVAJ
IndexError: string index out of rang

Reassigning Strings: Updating the content of the strings is as easy as assigning it to a

new string. The string object doesn't support item assignment i.e., A string can only be
replaced with new string since its content cannot be partially replaced. Strings are
immutable in Python.
Consider the following example.
str = "HELLO"
str[0] = "h"
print(str)
Output:

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Traceback (most recent call last):
File "12.py", line 2, in <module>
str[0] = "h";
TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment

However, in example 1, the string str can be assigned completely to a new content as
specified in the following example.
str = "HELLO"
print(str)
str = "hello"
print(str)
OUTPUT:
HELLO
hello

Deleting the String

As we know that strings are immutable. We cannot delete or remove the characters from
the string. But we can delete the entire string using the del keyword.
str = "JAVATPOINT"
del str[1]
Output:
TypeError: 'str' object doesn't support item deletion

Now we are deleting entire string.

str1 = "JAVATPOINT"
del str1
print(str1)
Output:
NameError: name 'str1' is not defined

String Operators
Operator Description
+ It is known as concatenation operator used to join the strings given either
side of the operator.
* It is known as repetition operator. It concatenates the multiple copies of the
same string.
[] It is known as slice operator. It is used to access the sub-strings of a
particular string.
[:] It is known as range slice operator. It is used to access the characters from
the specified range.
in It is known as membership operator. It returns if a particular sub-string is
present in the specified string.
not in It is also a membership operator and does the exact reverse of in. It returns
true if a particular substring is not present in the specified string.
r/R It is used to specify the raw string. Raw strings are used in the cases where
we need to print the actual meaning of escape characters such as
"C://python". To define any string as a raw string, the character r or R is
followed by the string.
% It is used to perform string formatting. It makes use of the format specifiers
used in C programming like %d or %f to map their values in python. We will
discuss how formatting is done in python.

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Consider the following example to understand the real use of Python operators.
str = "Hello"
str1 = " world"
print(str*3) # prints HelloHelloHello
print(str+str1) # prints Hello world
print(str[4]) # prints o
print(str[2:4]); # prints ll
print('w' in str) # prints false as w is not present in str
print('wo' not in str1) # prints false as wo is present in str1.
print(r'C://python39') # prints C://python37 as it is written
print("The string str : %s"%(str)) # prints The string str : Hello
Output:
HelloHelloHello
Hello world
o
ll
False
False
C://python39
The string str : Hello

Escape Sequence
Let's suppose we need to write the text as - They said, "Hello what's going on?"- the
given statement can be written in single quotes or double quotes but it will raise the
SyntaxError as it contains both single and double-quotes.
Consider the following example to understand the real use of Python operators.
str = "They said, "Hello what's going on?""
print(str)
Output:
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
We can use the triple quotes to accomplish this problem but Python provides the escape
sequence.
The backslash(/) symbol denotes the escape sequence. The backslash can be followed by
a special character and it interpreted differently. The single quotes inside the string must
be escaped. We can apply the same as in the double quotes.
Example
# using triple quotes
print('''They said, "What's there?"''')

# escaping single quotes

print('They said, "What\'s going on?"')

# escaping double quotes

print("They said, \"What's going on?\"")
OUTPUT:
They said, "What's there?"
They said, "What's going on?"
They said, "What's going on?"

The list of an escape sequence is given below:

Sr. Escape Description Example
Sequence
1. \newline It ignores the new line. print("Python1 \
Python2 \
Python3")

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Output:
Python1 Python2 Python3
2. \\ Backslash print("\\")
Output:
\
3. \' Single Quotes print('\'')
Output:
'
4. \\'' Double Quotes print("\"")
Output:
"
5. \a ASCII Bell print("\a")
6. \b ASCII Backspace(BS) print("Hello \b World")
Output:
Hello World
7. \f ASCII Formfeed print("Hello \f World!")
Hello World!
8. \n ASCII Linefeed print("Hello \n World!")
Output:
Hello
World!
9. \r ASCII Carriege print("Hello \r World!")
Return(CR) Output:
World!
10. \t ASCII Horizontal Tab print("Hello \t World!")
Output: Hello World!
11. \v ASCII Vertical Tab print("Hello \v World!")
Output:
Hello
World!
12. \ooo Character with octal value print("\110\145\154\154\157")
Output: Hello
13 \xHH Character with hex value. print("\x48\x65\x6c\x6c\x6f")
Output: Hello

Here is the simple example of escape sequence.

print("C:\\Users\\Bhumika\\Python39\\Lib")
print("This is the \n multiline quotes")
print("This is \x48\x45\x58 representation")
Output:
C:\Users\Bhumika\Python39\Lib
This is the
multiline quotes
This is HEX representation

Python String Formatting Using % Operator

Python allows us to use the format specifiers used in C's printf statement. The format
specifiers in Python are treated in the same way as they are treated in C. However,
Python provides an additional operator %, which is used as an interface between the
format specifiers and their values. In other words, we can say that it binds the format
specifiers to the values.Consider the following example.
Integer = 10;
Float = 1.290
String = "Mihir"

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print("Hi I am Integer ... My value is %d\nHi I am float ... My value is %f\nHi I am string
... My value is %s"%(Integer,Float,String))
Output:
Hi I am Integer ... My value is 10
Hi I am float ... My value is 1.290000
Hi I am string ... My value is Mihir

3.1.3 String Methods: (center, count, join, len, max, min, replace, lower, upper,
replace, split)
No Method Description
1 format(value) It returns a formatted version of S, using the passed
value.
Eg: #named indexes:
txt1 = "My name is {fname}, I'm
{age}".format(fname = "John", age = 36)
#numbered indexes:
txt2 = "My name is {0}, I'm {1}".format("John",36)
#empty placeholders:
txt3 = "My name is {}, I'm {}".format("John",36)
print(txt1)
print(txt2)
print(txt3)
2 center(width ,fillchar) It returns a space padded string with the original
string centred with equal number of left and right
spaces.
Eg: str = "Hello Javatpoint"
# Calling function
str2 = str.center(20,'#')
# Displaying result
print("Old value:", str)
print("New value:", str2)
3 string.count(value, start, It returns the number of times a specified value
end) appears in the string.
value: Required. A String. The string to value to
search for
start: Optional. An Integer. The position to start the
search. Default is 0
end: Optional. An Integer. The position to end the
search. Default is the end of the string
Eg1: txt = "I love apples, apple are my favorite fruit"
x = txt.count("apple")
print(x)
Eg2: txt = "I love apples, apple are my favorite fruit"
x = txt.count("apple", 10, 24)
print(x)
4 join(seq) It merges the strings representation of the given
sequence.
Eg : str = "->" # string
list = {'Java','C#','Python'} # iterable
str2 = str.join(list)
print(str2)
5 len(string) It returns the length of a string.
Eg: x = len("Hello")
print(x)

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6 max() It returns the item with the highest value, or the item
with the highest value in an iterable.
If the values are strings, an alphabetically comparison
is done.
Eg: x = max("Mike", "John", "Vicky")
print(x)
7 min() It returns the item with the lowest value, or the item
with the lowest value in an iterable.
If the values are strings, an alphabetically comparison
is done.
Eg: x = min("Bhumi", "John", "Vicky")
print(x)
8 replace(old,new[,count]) It replaces the old sequence of characters with the
new sequence. The max characters are replaced if max
is given.
Eg1: txt = "one one was a race horse, two two was
one too."
x = txt.replace("one", "three")
print(x)
Eg2: txt = "one one was a race horse, two two was
one too."
x = txt.replace("one", "three", 2)
print(x)
9 upper() It converts all the characters of a string to Upper Case.
Eg: txt = "Hello my friends"
x = txt.upper()
print(x)
10 lower() It converts all the characters of a string to Lower case.
Eg1: txt = "Hello my FRIENDS"
x = txt.lower()
print(x)
11 split(separator, Splits the string according to the delimiter str. The
maxsplit) string splits according to the space if the delimiter is
not provided. It returns the list of substring
concatenated with the delimiter.
separator :Optional. Specifies the separator to use
when splitting the string. By default any whitespace is
a separator
maxsplit :Optional. Specifies how many splits to do.
Default value is -1, which is "all occurrences"
eg1: txt = "apple#banana#cherry#orange"
x = txt.split("#")
print(x)
Eg2: txt = "apple#banana#cherry#orange"
# setting the maxsplit parameter to 1, will return a list
with 2 elements!
x = txt.split("#", 1)
print(x)

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3.2 Operators:
The operator can be defined as a symbol which is responsible for a particular operation
between two operands. Operators are the pillars of a program on which the logic is built
in a specific programming language. Python provides a variety of operators, which are
described as follows.

3.2.1 Arithmetic Operators (+,-,*, /, %,**,//)

Arithmetic operators are used to perform arithmetic operations between two operands. It
includes + (addition), - (subtraction), *(multiplication), /(divide), %(reminder), //(floor
division), and exponent (**) operators.
Consider the following table for a detailed explanation of arithmetic operators.
Operator Description
+ (Addition) It is used to add two operands. For example, if a = 20, b = 10
=> a+b = 30
- (Subtraction) It is used to subtract the second operand from the first operand.
If the first operand is less than the second operand, the value
results negative. For example, if a = 20, b = 10 => a - b = 10
/ (divide) It returns the quotient after dividing the first operand by the
second operand. For example, if a = 20, b = 10 => a/b = 2.0
* (Multiplication) It is used to multiply one operand with the other. For example, if
a = 20, b = 10 => a * b = 200
% (reminder) It returns the reminder after dividing the first operand by the
second operand. For example, if a = 20, b = 10 => a%b = 0
** (Exponent) It is an exponent operator represented as it calculates the first
operand power to the second operand.
// (Floor division) It gives the floor value of the quotient produced by dividing the
two operands.

3.2.2 Assignment Operators (=,+=,-=,/=,*=,//=)

The assignment operators are used to assign the value of the right expression to the left
operand. The assignment operators are described in the following table.
Operator Description
= It assigns the value of the right expression to the left operand.
+= It increases the value of the left operand by the value of the right operand
and assigns the modified value back to left operand. For example, if a = 10,
b = 20 => a+ = b will be equal to a = a+ b and therefore, a = 30.
-= It decreases the value of the left operand by the value of the right operand
and assigns the modified value back to left operand. For example, if a = 20,
b = 10 => a- = b will be equal to a = a- b and therefore, a = 10.
*= It multiplies the value of the left operand by the value of the right operand
and assigns the modified value back to then the left operand. For example, if
a = 10, b = 20 => a* = b will be equal to a = a* b and therefore, a = 200.
%= It divides the value of the left operand by the value of the right operand and
assigns the reminder back to the left operand. For example, if a = 20, b =
10 => a % = b will be equal to a = a % b and therefore, a = 0.
**= a**=b will be equal to a=a**b, for example, if a = 4, b =2, a**=b will
assign 4**2 = 16 to a.
//= A//=b will be equal to a = a// b, for example, if a = 4, b = 3, a//=b will
assign 4//3 = 1 to a.

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3.2.3 Comparison Operators (==, !=, >,<,>=,<=)
Comparison operators are used to comparing the value of the two operands and
returns Boolean true or false accordingly. The comparison operators are described in
the following table.
Operator Description
== If the value of two operands is equal, then the condition becomes true.
!= If the value of two operands is not equal, then the condition becomes true.
<= If the first operand is less than or equal to the second operand, then the
condition becomes true.
>= If the first operand is greater than or equal to the second operand, then the
condition becomes true.
> If the first operand is greater than the second operand, then the condition
becomes true.
< If the first operand is less than the second operand, then the condition
becomes true.

3.2.4 Logical Operators (and, or, not)

The logical operators are used primarily in the expression evaluation to make a decision.
Python supports the following logical operators.
Operator Description
and If both the expression are true, then the condition will be true. If a and b are
the two expressions, a → true, b → true => a and b → true.
or If one of the expressions is true, then the condition will be true. If a and b
are the two expressions, a → true, b → false => a or b → true.
not If an expression a is true, then not (a) will be false and vice versa.

3.2.5 Identity and member operators (is, is not, in, not in)
Membership Operators
Python membership operators are used to check the membership of value inside a
Python data structure. If the value is present in the data structure, then the resulting
value is true otherwise it returns false.
Operator Description
in It is evaluated to be true if the first operand is found in the second operand
(list, tuple, or dictionary).
not in It is evaluated to be true if the first operand is not found in the second
operand (list, tuple, or dictionary).
Identity Operators
The identity operators are used to decide whether an element certain class or type.
Operator Description
is It is evaluated to be true if the reference present at both sides point to the
same object.
is not It is evaluated to be true if the reference present at both sides do not point
to the same object.

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Operator Precedence
The precedence of the operators is essential to find out since it enables us to know which
operator should be evaluated first. The precedence table of the operators in Python is
given below.

Operator Description
exponent operator is given priority over all the others
**
used in the expression.
~+- negation, unary plus, and minus.
multiplication, divide, modules, reminder, and floor
* / % //
division.
+- Binary plus, and minus
>> << Left shift. and right shift
& Binary and(Bitwise)
^| Binary xor, and or (Bitwise)
Comparison operators (less than, less than equal to,
<= < > >=
greater than, greater then equal to).
<> == != Equality operators.
= %= /=
//= -=
Assignment operators
+=
*= **=
is is not Identity operators
in not in Membership operators
not or and Logical operators

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