Introduction
to
Python
Strings in Python
Strings
Components of Python
1) Variables (Me hold data)
2) Data-type (integers, float, )
3) Data-structures (list, tuple, dicitonary)
4) Loop (for, while)
5) Branch (if, elif, else)
6) Methods
7) Functions
Computers store text as strings
>>> s = "GATTACA"
s 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
G A T T A C A
's' is
variable! Each of these are characters
Why are strings important?
• Sequences are strings
• ..catgaaggaa ccacagccca gagcaccaag ggctatccat..
• Database records contain strings
• LOCUS AC005138
• DEFINITION Homo sapiens chromosome 17, clone
hRPK.261_A_13, complete sequence
• AUTHORS Birren,B., Fasman,K., Linton,L.,
Nusbaum,C. and Lander,E.
• HTML is one (big) string
Getting Characters
>>> s = "GATTACA"
>>> s[0]
'G' 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
>>> s[1] G A T T A C A
'A'
>>> s[-1]
'A'
>>> s[-2]
'C'
>>> s[7]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
IndexError: string index out of range
>>>
Getting substrings
>>> s[1:3]
'AT'
>>> s[:3] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
'GAT' G A T T A C A
>>> s[4:]
'ACA'
>>> s[3:5]
'TA'
>>> s[:]
'GATTACA'
>>> s[::2]
'GTAA'
>>> s[-2:2:-1]
'CAT'
Creating strings
Strings start and end with a single or double quote
characters (they must be the same)
"This is a string"
"This is another string"
""
"Strings can be in double quotes"
‘Or in single quotes.’
'There’s no difference.'
‘Okay, there\’s a small one.’
Special Characters and
Escape Sequences
Backslashes (\) are used to
introduce special characters
>>> s = 'Okay, there\'s a small one.'
The \ “escapes” the following single quote
>>> print s
Okay, there's a small one.
Some special characters
Escape
Meaning
Sequence
\\ Backslash (keep a \)
\' Single quote (keeps the ')
\" Double quote (keeps the ")
\n Newline
\t Tab
Working with strings
>>> len("GATTACA") length
7
>>> "GAT" + "TACA"
concatenation
'GATTACA'
>>> "A" * 10
'AAAAAAAAAA' repeat
>>> "G" in "GATTACA"
True substring test
>>> "GAT" in "GATTACA"
True
>>> "AGT" in "GATTACA"
False
>>> "GATTACA".find("ATT") substring location
1
>>> "GATTACA".count("T") substring count
2
>>>
Converting from/to strings
>>> "38" + 5
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'int' objects
>>> int("38") + 5
43
>>> "38" + str(5)
'385'
>>> int("38"), str(5)
(38, '5')
>>> int("2.71828")
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
ValueError: invalid literal for int(): 2.71828
>>> float("2.71828")
2.71828
>>>
Change a string?
Strings cannot be modified
They are immutable
Instead, create a new one
>>> s = "GATTACA"
>>> s[3] = "C"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
TypeError: object doesn't support item
assignment
>>> s = s[:3] + "C" + s[4:]
>>> s
'GATCACA'
>>>
Some more methods
>>> "GATTACA".lower()
'gattaca'
>>> "gattaca".upper()
'GATTACA'
>>> "GATTACA".replace("G", "U")
'UATTACA'
>>> "GATTACA".replace("C", "U")
'GATTAUA'
>>> "GATTACA".replace("AT", "**")
'G**TACA'
>>> "GATTACA".startswith("G")
True
>>> "GATTACA".startswith("g")
False
>>>
Ask for a string
The Python function “raw_input” asks
the user (that’s you!) for a string
>>> seq = raw_input("Enter a DNA sequence: ")
Enter a DNA sequence: ATGTATTGCATATCGT
>>> seq.count("A")
4
>>> print "There are", seq.count("T"), "thymines"
There are 7 thymines
>>> "ATA" in seq
True
>>> substr = raw_input("Enter a subsequence to find: ")
Enter a subsequence to find: GCA
>>> substr in seq
True
>>>
Assignment 1
Ask the user for a sequence then print
its length
Enter a sequence: ATTAC
It is 5 bases long
Assignment 2
Modify the program so it also prints the
number of A, T, C, and G characters in
the sequence
Enter a sequence: ATTAC
It is 5 bases long
adenine: 2
thymine: 2
cytosine: 1
guanine: 0
Assignment 3
Modify the program to allow both lower-
case and upper-case characters in the
sequence
Enter a sequence: ATTgtc
It is 6 bases long
adenine: 1
thymine: 3
cytosine: 1
guanine: 1
Assignment 4
Modify the program to print the number
of unknown characters in the sequence
Enter a sequence: ATTU*gtc
It is 8 bases long
adenine: 1
thymine: 3
cytosine: 1
guanine: 1
unknown: 2
