COL100: Introduction to Computer Science

Lab 8: Strings
February 28, 2025

1 Strings
Strings in Python are used to represent characters and can be defined using single (’) or
double (”) quotes.

Example

1 s1 = ' abc '

2 s2 = " 123 "

The literal ‘123’ represents a string of three characters, not the number 123.

1.1 String Operations

You can perform various operations on strings:

1.1.1 Concatenation and Repetition

The ‘+‘ operator is used for concatenation, and the ‘*’ operator is used for repetition.

Examples

1 # Concatenation
2 result = 'a ' + 'a ' # Output : ' aa '
3
4 # Repetition
5 repeated = 3 * 'a ' # Output : ' aaa '

1.1.2 Type Errors

If you try to use ‘ * ’ on two strings, Python will raise a TypeError.

Example

1 # This will raise a TypeError

2 error = 'a ' * 'a ' # Output : TypeError : can 't multiply sequence by non -
int of type ' str '
 1.2 Type Checking
Python performs type checking to catch errors. For example, in Python 3, the expression
‘4’ < 3 will raise a TypeError because comparing different types does not have a clear
meaning.

1.3 String Length and Indexing

You can find the length of a string using the len() function and access characters using
indexing.

Example

1 s = ' abc '

2 length = len ( s ) # Output : 3
3 first_char = s [0] # Output : 'a '
4 last_char = s [ -1] # Output : 'c ' ( negative indexing )

Indexing Errors
Attempting to access an index out of range will raise an IndexError.
1 # This will raise an IndexError
2 out_of_range = s [3] # Output : IndexError : string index out of range

1.4 Slicing
Slicing allows you to extract substrings from a string.

Example

1 substring = s [1:3] # Output : 'b '

If the start index is omitted, it defaults to 0. If the end index is omitted, it defaults
to the length of the string.
1 full_string = s [:] # Output : ' abc '

Non-contiguous Slicing
You can also slice with a third argument to skip elements.
1 sliced = ' 123456789 ' [0:8:2] # Output : '1357 '

Page 2
 1.5 Type Conversions
Python provides built-in functions to convert types, such as str(), int(), and float().
1 num = 30000000
2 fraction = 1 / 2
3 print ( num * fraction , ' is ' , fraction * 100 , '% ' , ' of ' , num )
4 # Output : 15000000.0 is 50.0 % of 30000000

1.6 Using f-strings for Formatting

Introduced in Python 3.6, f-strings provide a way to embed expressions inside string
literals.
1 print ( f '{ int ( num * fraction ) } is { fraction * 100}% of { num } ')
2 # Output : 15000000 is 50.0% of 30000000

Modifiers
You can include modifiers in f-strings to control the formatting.
1 print ( f '{ num * fraction : ,.0 f } is { fraction * 100}% of { num : ,} ')
2 # Output : 15 ,000 ,000 is 50.0% of 30 ,000 ,000

Page 3
 2 Submission Problem
2.1 Palindrome Checker Problem
Problem Statement
You are given a single string s. Your task is to write a program to determine if the string
s is a palindrome. A palindrome is a string that reads the same backward as forward,
ignoring spaces, punctuation, and case differences.

2.1.1 Instructions
• The first line contains the string s, which may include letters, numbers, spaces, and
punctuation.

• Print True if the string s is a palindrome; otherwise, print False.

Input

1 A man , a plan , a c a n a l : Panama

Output

1 True
Explanation: If we ignore spaces, punctuation, and case, the string reads the same
forward and backward.

Input

1 race a car

Output

1 False
Explanation: Even after ignoring spaces and punctuation, the string does not read
the same forward and backward.

Page 4
Constraints
• The string s will contain only ASCII characters.

• Treat uppercase and lowercase letters as the same for palindrome checking.

• Ignore non-alphanumeric characters.

• Do not use string slicing to reverse the string.

Page 5
 3 Practice Problem
3.1 Finding the Last Position of a Substring
Problem Statement
Given a string s and a substring sub, write a program to find the last occurrence (position)
of sub within s. If the substring does not exist in the string, return -1.

• The first line of input contains the main string s.

• The second line of input contains the substring sub to be searched.

• Output the last position (0-based index) of sub in s.

Note: The search should be case-sensitive.

Input

1 hellohello
2 lo

Output

1 8
Explanation: The substring ”lo” occurs twice in the string ”hellohello”. The last
occurrence starts at index 8.

Input

1 openai
2 ai

Output

1 4
Explanation: The substring ”ai” occurs only once in ”openai”, starting at index 4.

Input

1 testcase
2 xyz

Page 6
 Output

1 −1
Explanation: The substring ”xyz” does not appear in ”testcase”, so the output is -1.

Constraints
• The length of the main string s will be between 1 and 105 .
• The length of the substring sub will be between 1 and 104 .

3.2 Character Frequency Counter

Problem Statement
Write a program that counts the occurrences of each character in the string and prints
the frequency of each character in alphabetical order.
• The input consists of a single line containing the string s, which may include letters,
numbers, spaces, and punctuation.
• Output each unique character from the string s (ignoring case) along with its
frequency, in alphabetical order. Treat uppercase and lowercase letters as the same
character.
• Ignore spaces in the frequency count.

Input

1 H e l l o , World !

Output

1 ,: 1
2 !: 1
3 d: 1
4 e: 1
5 h: 1
6 l: 3
7 o: 2
8 r: 1
9 w: 1
Explanation: In the string "Hello, World!", the program counts each character’s
occurrences, ignoring case and spaces, and outputs the frequency of each character in
alphabetical order.

Page 7
 Input

1 Data S c i e n c e

Output

1 a: 2
2 c: 2
3 d: 1
4 e: 2
5 i: 1
6 n: 1
7 s: 1
8 t: 1
Explanation: In the string "Data Science", each character frequency is counted and
displayed in alphabetical order.

3.3 Minimum Coins Problem

Problem Statement
Given a list of coin denominations and a target amount, write a program to determine
the minimum number of coins needed to make up that amount. If the target amount
cannot be achieved with any combination of the available coins, return -1.

• The first line contains two integers: the number of coin denominations n and the
target amount amount.
• The second line contains n integers representing the available coin denominations.
• Output the minimum number of coins needed to make up the amount, or -1 if it is
not possible.

Input

1 3 11
2 1 2 5

Output

1 3
Explanation: To achieve a target amount of 11, we can use three coins: two 5-coin
denominations and one 1-coin denomination (5 + 5 + 1 = 11).

Page 8
 Input

1 2 3
2 2 4

Output

1 −1
Explanation: It is impossible to achieve the target amount of 3 with only coins of
denominations 2 and 4.

Constraints
• 1 ≤ n ≤ 100

• 1 ≤ amount ≤ 104

• Each coin denomination will be a positive integer not greater than 104 .

Page 9