- Python Strings
- Example
- Assign String to a Variable
- Example
- Multiline Strings
- Example
- Example
- Strings are Arrays
- Example
- Looping Through a String
- Example
- String Length
- Example
- Check String
- Example
- Example
- Check if NOT
- Example
- Example
- How to create a string in Python
- Strings in Python
- Create a string in Python
- Create a string in Python using Single quotes
- Create a string in Python using double quotes
- Create a string in Python using triple quotes(‘” “‘)
- How to declare and assign a variable to a string in Python
- Declaring and Assigning a Variable to a String in Python
Python 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:
Example
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:
Example
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)
Example
a = »’Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.»’
print(a)
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):
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»:
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:
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:
Use it in an if statement:
Example
Print only if «free» is present:
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:
Use it in an if statement:
Example
print only if «expensive» is NOT present:
How to create a string in Python
Python is a versatile and widely used programming language that provides various data types to deal with different data structures. One of the most commonly used data types is the string, which represents a sequence of characters. In this blog post, we will explore how to create a string in Python using various methods and examples.
Strings in Python
A string in Python is an ordered sequence of characters enclosed within single or double quotes. It can contain letters, numbers, special characters, and even escape sequences. Strings are immutable in Python, meaning their values cannot be changed after they are created. However, you can create new strings using existing ones.
Create a string in Python
There are different ways, we can create strings in Python.
Create a string in Python using Single quotes
Creating a string in Python using single quotes is one of the most basic and commonly used methods. You can use single quotes to define a string that contains characters, digits, and special symbols.
Here are some examples and specific scenarios where single quotes are useful:
stringName='United States of America' print(stringName)
Although single quotes are not meant for defining multi-line strings, you can use an escape character at the end of each line to achieve this in Python.
stringMultiline = 'This is a multi-line string using \ single quotes. It works by adding an escape \ character at the end of each line.' print(stringMultiline)
- String Interpolation with Single Quotes: You can also use single quotes when performing string interpolation using f-strings or the str.format() method:
name = 'John' age = 30 f_string = f' is years old.' format_string = ' is years old.'.format(name=name, age=age) print(f_string) # Output: John is 30 years old. print(format_string) # Output: John is 30 years old.
This is how we can create a string using single quotes.
Create a string in Python using double quotes
Creating a string in Python using double quotes is another basic and widely used method. Double quotes can be employed to define strings that contain characters, digits, and special symbols.
Here are some examples and specific scenarios where double quotes we are using to create a string in Python.
You can create a simple string using double quotes as follows:
string1 = "New York City, New York" print(string1) # Output: New York City, New York
- Strings with Single Quotes: When your string contains single quotes, you can use double quotes to avoid the need for escaping:
string2 = "It's always sunny in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" print(string2) # Output: It's always sunny in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
If your Python string contains double quotes, you’ll need to escape them using a backslash ( \ ). Without the escape character, the interpreter would assume that the double quote marks the end of the string:
string3 = "The \"City of Angels\": Los Angeles, California" print(string3) # Output: The "City of Angels": Los Angeles, California
You can concatenate strings defined with double quotes using the + operator in Python:
string4 = "Miami, " + "Florida" print(string4) # Output: Miami, Florida
Similar to single quotes, you can use an escape character at the end of each line to create a multi-line string with double quotes in Python:
string5 = "Famous US cities include: \ \"New York City, New York\", \ \"Los Angeles, California\", and \ \"Chicago, Illinois\"." print(string5)
This is how to create a string using double quotes in Python.
Create a string in Python using triple quotes(‘” “‘)
Triple quotes in Python allow you to create strings that span multiple lines or contain both single and double quotes. You can use triple single quotes ( »’ »’ ) or triple double quotes ( «»» «»» ). Here are two examples featuring various city names from the United States of America:
Example 1 – Multi-line String:
stringMultiline = """Some popular cities in the United States of America: - New York City, New York - Los Angeles, California - Chicago, Illinois - Houston, Texas - Phoenix, Arizona """ print(stringMultiline)
You can see the output like below:
Example-2: String with Both Single and Double Quotes:
string2 = '''Famous nicknames of American cities: - "The Big Apple" - New York City - "The Windy City" - Chicago - "The City of Angels" - Los Angeles - "The City by the Bay" - San Francisco - "America's Finest City" - San Diego ''' print(string2)
You can see the output like below:
These examples demonstrate how triple quotes can be used to create strings in Python that span multiple lines or contain both single and double quotes without the need for escape characters.
How to declare and assign a variable to a string in Python
Now, we will learn how to declare and assign a variable to a string in Python.
In Python, a variable is used to store a value, while a string is a sequence of characters enclosed within single or double quotes. When you declare a variable and assign it to a string, you’re telling Python to reserve a space in memory to hold the string value and associate it with the variable name. This allows you to use the variable in place of the actual string value throughout your code.
Declaring and Assigning a Variable to a String in Python
Using Single Quotes
To declare a variable and assign it to a string in Python using single quotes, simply write the variable name followed by an equal sign (=) and the desired string enclosed in single quotes:
city = 'New York City, New York' print(city) # Output: New York City, New York
Using Double Quotes
Alternatively, you can use double quotes to declare a variable and assign it to a string in Python:
city = "Los Angeles, California" print(city) # Output: Los Angeles, California
Using Triple Quotes:
If your string spans multiple lines or contains both single and double quotes, you can use triple quotes (either triple single quotes »’ »’ or triple double quotes «»» «»» ):
cities = """Major US Cities: - New York City, New York - Los Angeles, California - Chicago, Illinois """ print(cities)
Accessing and Modifying String Values:
Once you’ve declared a variable and assigned it to a string, you can access individual characters in the string using indexing or slicing. Keep in mind that strings in Python are immutable, which means their values cannot be changed. However, you can create new strings using existing ones.
city = "Seattle, Washington" # Accessing the first character of the string first_char = city[0] print(first_char) # Output: S # Slicing the string to get a substring state = city[-10:] print(state) # Output: Washington
Here we have covered how to declare and assign a variable to a string in Python using various methods, such as single quotes, double quotes, and triple quotes.
In this tutorial, we have learned how to create a string in Python using various methods, and we learned, how to declare and assign a variable to a string in Python using various methods, such as single quotes, double quotes, and triple quotes.
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