CMU 15-112: Fundamentals of Programming and Computer Science
Class Notes: Strings

1. String Literals
2. Some String Constants
3. Some String Operators
4. Looping over Strings
5. Example: isPalindrome
6. Strings are Immutable
7. Some String-related Built-In Functions
8. Some String Methods
9. String Formatting
10. Basic File IO

1. String Literals
   1. Four kinds of quotes
      
      # single-quoted or double-quoted strings are the most common print('single-quotes') print("double-quotes") # triple-qouted strings are less common (though see next section for a typical use) print('''triple single-quotes''') print("""triple double-quotes""")
   
   
   2. Newlines in strings
      
      print("abc\ndef") # \n is a single newline character print("""abc def""") print("""\ You can use a backslash at the end of a line in a string to exclude the newline after it. This should almost never be used, but one good use of it is in this example, at the start of a multi-line string, so the whole string can be entered with the same indentation (none, that is). """)
   
   
   3. More Escape Sequences
      
      print("Double-quote: \"") print("Backslash: \\") print("Newline (in brackets): [\n]") print("Tab (in brackets): [\t]") print("These items are tab-delimited, 3-per-line:") print("abc\tdef\tg\nhi\tj\\\tk\n---")
      
      An escape sequence produces a single character:
      
      s = "a\\b\"c\td" print("s =", s) print("len(s) =", len(s))
   
   
   4. Concatenated Literals
      
      s = "abc" "def" # ok (but "abc" + "def" is preferred) print(s) s = s "def" # error (only works with string literals, not variables)
   
   
   5. String Literals as Multi-line Comments
      
      """ Python does not have multiline comments, but you can do something similar by using a top-level multiline string, such as this. Technically, this is not a comment, and Python will evaluate this string, but then ignore it and garbage collect it! """ print("wow!")


2. Some String Constants
   import string print(string.ascii_letters) # abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ print(string.ascii_lowercase) # abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz print("-----------") print(string.ascii_uppercase) # ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ print(string.digits) # 0123456789 print("-----------") print(string.punctuation) # '!"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}~' print(string.printable) # digits + letters + punctuation + whitespace print("-----------") print(string.whitespace) # space + tab + linefeed + return + ...


3. Some String Operators
   1. String + and *
      
      print("abc" + "def") print("abc" * 3) print("abc" + 3) # error
   
   
   2. The in operator
      
      print("ring" in "strings") print("wow" in "amazing!") print("Yes" in "yes!") print("" in "No way!")
   
   
   3. String indexing and slicing
      
      1. Indexing a single character
         
         s = "abcdefgh" print(s) print(s[0]) print(s[1]) print(s[2]) print("-----------") print(s[len(s)-1]) print(s[len(s)]) # crashes (string index out of range)
      
      
      2. Negative indexes
         
         s = "abcdefgh" print(s) print(s[-1]) print(s[-2])
      
      
      3. Slicing a range of characters
         
         s = "abcdefgh" print(s) print(s[0:3]) print(s[1:3]) print("-----------") print(s[2:3]) print(s[3:3])
      
      
      4. Slicing with default parameters
         
         s = "abcdefgh" print(s) print(s[3:]) print(s[:3]) print(s[:])
      
      
      5. Slicing with a step parameter
         
         print("This is not as common, but perfectly ok.") s = "abcdefgh" print(s) print(s[1:7:2]) print(s[1:7:3])
      
      
      6. Reversing a string
         
         s = "abcdefgh" print("This works, but is confusing:") print(s[::-1]) print("This also works, but is still confusing:") print("".join(reversed(s))) print("Best way: write your own reverseString() function:") def reverseString(s): return s[::-1] print(reverseString(s)) # crystal clear!
   
   
4. Looping over Strings
   1. "for" loop with indexes
      
      s = "abcd" for i in range(len(s)): print(i, s[i])
   
   
   2. "for" loop without indexes
      
      s = "abcd" for c in s: print(c)
   
   
   3. "for" loop with split
      
      names = "fred,wilma,betty,barney" for name in names.split(","): print(name)
   
   
   4. "for" loop with splitlines
      
      # quotes from brainyquote.com quotes = """\ Dijkstra: Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. Knuth: If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy. Dijkstra: Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning. Knuth: Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. Dijkstra: Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. """ for line in quotes.splitlines(): if (line.startswith("Knuth")): print(line)
   
   
5. Example: isPalindrome
   # There are many ways to write isPalindrome(s) # Here are several. Which way is best? def reverseString(s): return s[::-1] def isPalindrome1(s): return (s == reverseString(s)) def isPalindrome2(s): for i in range(len(s)): if (s[i] != s[len(s)-1-i]): return False return True def isPalindrome3(s): for i in range(len(s)): if (s[i] != s[-1-i]): return False return True def isPalindrome4(s): while (len(s) > 1): if (s[0] != s[-1]): return False s = s[1:-1] return True print(isPalindrome1("abcba"), isPalindrome1("abca")) print(isPalindrome2("abcba"), isPalindrome2("abca")) print(isPalindrome3("abcba"), isPalindrome3("abca")) print(isPalindrome4("abcba"), isPalindrome4("abca"))


6. Strings are Immutable
   1. You cannot change strings! They are immutable.
      
      s = "abcde" s[2] = "z" # Error! Cannot assign into s[i]
   
   
   2. Instead, you must create a new string
      
      s = "abcde" s = s[:2] + "z" + s[3:] print(s)
   
   
7. Some String-related Built-In Functions
   1. input(), str(), and len()
      
      name = input("Enter your name: ") print("Hi, " + name + ". Your name has " + str(len(name)) + " letters!")
   
   
   2. chr() and ord()
      
      print(ord("A")) # 65 print(chr(65)) # "A" print(chr(ord("A")+1)) # ?
   
   
   3. eval()
      
      # eval() works but you should not use it! s = "(3**2 + 4**2)**0.5" print(eval(s)) # why not? Well... s = "reformatMyHardDrive()" print(eval(s)) # no such function! But what if there was?


8. Some String Methods
   1. Character types: isalnum(), isalpha(), isdigit(), islower(), isspace(), isupper()
      
      # Run this code to see a table of isX() behaviors def p(test): print("True " if test else "False ", end="") def printRow(s): print(" " + s + " ", end="") p(s.isalnum()) p(s.isalpha()) p(s.isdigit()) p(s.islower()) p(s.isspace()) p(s.isupper()) print() def printTable(): print(" s isalnum isalpha isdigit islower isspace isupper") for s in "ABCD,ABcd,abcd,ab12,1234, ,AB?!".split(","): printRow(s) printTable()
   
   
   2. String edits: lower(), upper(), replace(), strip()
      
      print("This is nice. Yes!".lower()) print("So is this? Sure!!".upper()) print(" Strip removes leading and trailing whitespace only ".strip()) print("This is nice. Really nice.".replace("nice", "sweet")) print("This is nice. Really nice.".replace("nice", "sweet", 1)) # count = 1 print("----------------") s = "This is so so fun!" t = s.replace("so ", "") print(t) print(s) # note that s is unmodified (strings are immutable!)
   
   
   3. Substring search: count(), startswith(), endswith(), find(), index()
      
      print("This is a history test".count("is")) # 3 print("This IS a history test".count("is")) # 2 print("-------") print("Dogs and cats!".startswith("Do")) # True print("Dogs and cats!".startswith("Don't")) # False print("-------") print("Dogs and cats!".endswith("!")) # True print("Dogs and cats!".endswith("rats!")) # False print("-------") print("Dogs and cats!".find("and")) # 5 print("Dogs and cats!".find("or")) # -1 print("-------") print("Dogs and cats!".index("and")) # 5 print("Dogs and cats!".index("or")) # crash!


9. String Formatting
   format a string with %s
   
   breed = "beagle" print("Did you see a %s?" % breed)
   
   format an integer with %d
   
   dogs = 42 print("There are %d dogs." % dogs)
   
   format a float with %f
   
   grade = 87.385 print("Your current grade is %f!" % grade)
   
   format a float with %.[precision]f
   
   grade = 87.385 print("Your current grade is %0.1f!" % grade)
   
   format multiple values
   
   dogs = 42 cats = 18 exclamation = "Wow" print("There are %d dogs and %d cats. %s!!!" % (dogs, cats, exclamation))
   
   format right-aligned with %[minWidth]
   
   dogs = 42 cats = 3 print("%10s %10s" % ("dogs", "cats")) print("%10d %10d" % (dogs, cats))
   
   format left-aligned with %-[minWidth]
   
   dogs = 42 cats = 3 print("%-10s %-10s" % ("dogs", "cats")) print("%-10d %-10d" % (dogs, cats))


10. Basic File IO
    # Note: As this requires read-write access to your hard drive, # this will not run in the browser in Brython. def readFile(path): with open(path, "rt") as f: return f.read() def writeFile(path, contents): with open(path, "wt") as f: f.write(contents) contentsToWrite = "This is a test!\nIt is only a test!" writeFile("foo.txt", contentsToWrite) contentsRead = readFile("foo.txt") assert(contentsRead == contentsToWrite) print("Open the file foo.txt and verify its contents.")