Chapter 8 Strings

July 28, 2024

Chapter 8: Strings
Introduction to Strings
• Definition: A string is a sequence of characters.
• Strings are immutable in Python, meaning once created, they cannot be changed.

8.1 Creating Strings

• Single Quotes: 'Hello'
• Double Quotes: "Hello"
• Triple Quotes: '''Hello''' or """Hello""" for multi-line strings.
Example:

[ ]: single_line = 'Hello, World!'

multi_line = '''This is
a multi-line
string.'''
print(single_line) # Output: Hello, World!
print(multi_line) # Output: This is\na multi-line\nstring

Explanation: single_line is a simple string using single quotes, while multi_line is a multi-line
string using triple quotes.

8.2 Accessing Characters in a String

• Indexing: Use square brackets [ ] to access individual characters.
– Positive indices start from 0.
– Negative indices start from -1 from the end.
Example:

[ ]: str1 = 'Hello, World!'

print(str1[0]) # Output: 'H'
print(str1[-1]) # Output: '!'
print(str1[7]) # Output: 'W'

Explanation: This program accesses characters in str1 using positive and negative indices.

1
 Chapter 8 Strings

8.3 String Operations

8.3.1 Concatenation
• Use + to join two or more strings.
Example:

[ ]: str1 = 'Hello'
str2 = 'World!'
result = str1 + ' ' + str2
print(result) # Output: 'Hello World!'

Explanation: This program joins str1 and str2 with a space in between using the + operator.

8.3.2 Repetition
• Use * to repeat a string multiple times.
Example:

[ ]: str1 = 'Hello'
print(str1 * 2) # Output: 'HelloHello'
print(str1 * 5) # Output: 'HelloHelloHelloHelloHello'

Explanation: This program repeats the string str1 2 and 5 times using the * operator.

8.3.3 Membership
• Use in and not in to check for the presence of a substring.
Example:

[ ]: str1 = 'Hello, World!'

print('W' in str1) # Output: True
print('My' not in str1) # Output: True

Explanation: This program checks if ‘W’ is in str1 and if ‘My’ is not in str1 using the in and
not in operators.

8.3.4 Slicing
• Extract substrings using str1[start:end].
– start is inclusive, end is exclusive.
Example:

[ ]: str1 = 'Hello, World!'

print(str1[1:5]) # Output: 'ello'
print(str1[:5]) # Output: 'Hello'
print(str1[6:]) # Output: ' World!'
print(str1[::2]) # Output: 'Hlo ol!'

PRIMUS PU COLLEGE, BANGALORE | 2

 Chapter 8 Strings

Explanation: This program slices str1 to extract substrings using different start, end, and step
values.

8.4 Traversing a String

Using for Loop Example:

[ ]: str1 = 'Hello, World!'

for ch in str1:
print(ch, end=' ')

Explanation: This program uses a for loop to iterate over each character in str1 and print them
with a space in between.

Using while Loop Example:

[ ]:

[ ]: str1 = 'Hello, World!'

index = 0
while index < len(str1):
print(str1[index], end=' ')
index += 1

Explanation: This program uses a while loop to iterate over each character in str1 and print them
with a space in between.

8.5 String Methods and Built-in Functions

len(): Returns the length of the string. Example:

[ ]: print(len('Hello'))

title(): Converts the first character of each word to uppercase. Example:

[ ]: print('hello world'.title()) # Output: 'Hello World'

Explanation: This method capitalizes the first letter of each word in the string ‘hello world’.

lower(): Converts all characters to lowercase. Example:

[ ]: print('HELLO'.lower()) # Output: 'hello'

Explanation: This method converts all characters in the string ‘HELLO’ to lowercase.

upper(): Converts all characters to uppercase. Example:

[ ]: print('hello'.upper()) # Output: 'HELLO'

Explanation: This method converts all characters in the string ‘hello’ to uppercase.

PRIMUS PU COLLEGE, BANGALORE | 3

 Chapter 8 Strings

count(): Counts occurrences of a substring. Example:

[ ]: print('hello'.count('l')) # Output: 2

Explanation: This method counts the number of times ‘l’ appears in the string ‘hello’.

find(): Finds the first occurrence of a substring. Example:

[ ]: print('hello'.find('e')) # Output: 1

Explanation: This method returns the index of the first occurrence of ‘e’ in the string ‘hello’.

index(): Finds the first occurrence of a substring (raises error if not found). Example:

[ ]: print('hello'.index('e')) # Output: 1

Explanation: This method returns the index of the first occurrence of ‘e’ in the string ‘hello’. If ‘e’
is not found, it raises a ValueError.

endswith(): Checks if the string ends with a specified substring. Example:

[ ]: print('hello'.endswith('o')) # Output: True

Explanation: This method returns True if the string ‘hello’ ends with ‘o’, otherwise it returns
False.

startswith(): Checks if the string starts with a specified substring. Example:

[ ]: print('hello'.startswith('h')) # Output: True

Explanation: This method returns True if the string ‘hello’ starts with ‘h’, otherwise it returns
False.

isalnum(): Checks if all characters are alphanumeric. Example:

[ ]: print('hello123'.isalnum()) # Output: True

Explanation: This method returns True if all characters in the string ‘hello123’ are alphanumeric,
otherwise it returns False.

islower(): Checks if all characters are lowercase. Example:

[ ]: print('hello'.islower()) # Output: True

Explanation: This method returns True if all characters in the string ‘hello’ are lowercase, otherwise
it returns False.

PRIMUS PU COLLEGE, BANGALORE | 4

 Chapter 8 Strings

isupper(): Checks if all characters are uppercase. Example:

[ ]: print('HELLO'.isupper()) # Output: True

Explanation: This method returns True if all characters in the string ‘HELLO’ are uppercase,
otherwise it returns False.

isspace(): Checks if all characters are whitespace. Example:

[ ]: print(' '.isspace()) # Output: True

Explanation: This method returns True if all characters in the string ’ ’ are whitespace, otherwise
it returns False.

istitle(): Checks if the string is title-cased. Example:

[ ]: print('Hello World'.istitle()) # Output: True

Explanation: This method returns True if the string ‘Hello World’ is title-cased, otherwise it returns
False.

lstrip(): Removes leading whitespace. Example:

[ ]: print(' hello'.lstrip()) # Output: 'hello'

Explanation: This method removes leading whitespace from the string ’ hello’.

rstrip(): Removes trailing whitespace. Example:

[ ]: print('hello '.rstrip()) # Output: 'hello'

Explanation: This method removes trailing whitespace from the string ‘hello’.

strip(): Removes both leading and trailing whitespace. Example:

[ ]: print(' hello '.strip()) # Output: 'hello'

Explanation: This method removes both leading and trailing whitespace from the string ’ hello ’.

replace(): Replaces a substring with another. Example:

[ ]: print('hello'.replace('l', 'x')) # Output: 'hexxo'

Explanation: This method replaces all occurrences of ‘l’ with ‘x’ in the string ‘hello’.

join(): Joins elements of an iterable with a string separator. Example:

[ ]: print('-'.join('hello')) # Output: 'h-e-l-l-o'

Explanation: This method joins the characters of the string ‘hello’ with ‘-’ as a separator.

PRIMUS PU COLLEGE, BANGALORE | 5

 Chapter 8 Strings

partition(): Splits the string into three parts. Example:

[ ]: print('hello world'.partition(' ')) # Output: ('hello', ' ', 'world')

Explanation: This method splits the string ‘hello world’ at the first occurrence of ’ ’ into a tuple
containing the part before the separator, the separator itself, and the part after the separator.

split(): Splits the string at the specified separator. Example: ‘

[ ]: print('hello world'.split(' ')) # Output: ['hello', 'world']

Explanation: This method splits the string ‘hello world’ at each occurrence of ’ ’ into a list of
substrings.

Exercises
1. Write a Python program to find the length of a string.

[ ]:

2. Write a Python program to count the number of times a character appears in a string.

[ ]:

3. Write a Python program to check if a string is a palindrome.

[ ]:

[ ]:

4. Write a Python program to convert a string to uppercase without using the upper() method.

[ ]:

5. Write a Python program to remove all whitespace from a string.

[ ]:

6. Write a Python program to reverse the order of words in a string.

[ ]:

7. Write a Python program to find the most common character in a string.

[ ]:

8. Write a Python program to find the first non-repeating character in a string.

[ ]:

PRIMUS PU COLLEGE, BANGALORE | 6