4.4.1. Working with Python Strings

Python handles string objects powerfully and elegantly. There are a LOT of great tutorials and walkthroughs online, so I’m not going to replicate them. I’ll list what I think are the barebones stuff here, and a few resources for you to reference.

4.4.1.1. A few things to know

Again, just a FEW basics.

  • concatenate two strings with ‘+’

  • you can slice strings like a list

a_str = 'Hey you' + ' there' # concatenate strings
a_str[3:5]
' y'
  • Use functions: .split(), takes a string and returns a list of strings, while .join() takes a list and returns one string

a_str.split() #splits on spaces by default, notice the spaces are gone
['Hey', 'you', 'there']
a_str.split('e') # splits on the 'e's, notice the e's are gone
['H', 'y you th', 'r', '']
split_up = a_str.split()
# syntax: <string to use as joiner>.join(<list of strings>)
'---'.join(split_up)
'Hey---you---there'
  • You can wrap strings in ‘, “, ‘’’, or “””

    • If your string has ‘ or ” inside it, use the opposite quotation type as the wrapper

    • ‘’’ will let you use both internally, and the string can spill over multiple lines (like the doc string inside the functions in the community codebook folder)

  • You can use .replace() to replace characters:

a_str.replace('H','HHHH')
'HHHHey you there'