Python Strings
Strings
Strings in python are surrounded by either single quotation marks, or double quotation marks.
'hello' is the same as "hello".
You can display a string literal with the print() function:
Quotes Inside Quotes
You can use quotes inside a string, as long as they don't match the quotes surrounding the string:
Example
print("It's alright")
print("He is called 'Johnny'")
print('He is called "Johnny"')
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Assign String to a Variable
Assigning a string to a variable is done with the variable name followed by an equal sign and the string:
Multiline Strings
You can assign a multiline string to a variable by using three quotes:
Example
You can use three double quotes:
a = """Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliqua."""
print(a)
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Or three single quotes:
Example
a = '''Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'''
print(a)
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Note: in the result, the line breaks are inserted at the same position as in the code.
Strings are Arrays
Like many other popular programming languages, strings in Python are arrays of bytes representing unicode characters.
However, Python does not have a character data type, a single character is simply a string with a length of 1.
Square brackets can be used to access elements of the string.
Example
Get the character at position 1 (remember that the first character has the position 0):
a = "Hello, World!"
print(a[1])
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Looping Through a String
Since strings are arrays, we can loop through the characters in a string, with a for loop.
Example
Loop through the letters in the word "banana":
for x in "banana":
print(x)
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Learn more about For Loops in our Python For Loops chapter.
String Length
To get the length of a string, use the len() function.
Example
The len() function returns the length of a string:
a = "Hello, World!"
print(len(a))
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Check String
To check if a certain phrase or character is present in a string, we can use
the keyword
in.
Example
Check if "free" is present in the following text:
txt = "The best things in life are free!"
print("free" in txt)
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Use it in an if statement:
Example
Print only if "free" is present:
txt = "The best things in life are free!"
if "free" in txt:
print("Yes, 'free' is present.")
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Learn more about If statements in our Python If...Else chapter.
Check if NOT
To check if a certain phrase or character is NOT present in a string, we can use
the keyword not in.
Example
Check if "expensive" is NOT present in the following text:
txt = "The best things in life are free!"
print("expensive" not in txt)
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Use it in an if statement:
Example
print only if "expensive" is NOT present:
txt = "The best things in life are free!"
if "expensive" not in txt:
print("No, 'expensive' is NOT present.")
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