Python - string slicing
In this article, we would like to show you how to use string slicing in Python.
By using the following slice syntax you can return a range of characters:
xxxxxxxxxxstring[start_index: end_index]or
xxxxxxxxxxstring[start_index: end_index: step]Where:
start_index- index position, from where it will start fetching the characters (default value is0),end_index- index position, where it will end fetching the characters (default value is end of the string),step- interval between each character (default value is1)
Note:
xxxxxxxxxx1string[start_index: end_index: step]is equivalent to:
xxxxxxxxxx1string[slice(start_index, end_index, step)]
In this example, we specify the start index and the end index to return a part of the string using positive indexing only.
xxxxxxxxxxtext = "dirask is cool"substring1 = text[0:6] # dirask (start from index 0 to 7)substring2 = text[7:9] # issubstring3 = text[10:14] # coolprint(substring1) # diraskprint(substring2) # isprint(substring3) # coolOutput:
xxxxxxxxxxdiraskiscoolIn this example, we specify the start index and the end index to return a part of the string using negative indexing only.
xxxxxxxxxxtext = "dirask is cool"substring1 = text[-14:-8] # dirask (counting from the end of the string)substring2 = text[-7:-5] # issubstring3 = text[-4:14] # coolprint(substring1) # diraskprint(substring2) # isprint(substring3) # coolOutput:
xxxxxxxxxxdiraskiscoolIn this example, we don't specify the start index to start slicing from the index 0 by default.
xxxxxxxxxxtext = "dirask is cool"substring = text[:6] # dirask (starts from index 0 by default)print(substring) # diraskOutput:
xxxxxxxxxxdiraskIn this example, we don't specify the end index to end slicing at the end of the string by default.
xxxxxxxxxxtext = "dirask is cool"substring1 = text[10:] # cool (from index 10 to the end of the string)substring2 = text[-4:] # cool (from index -4 to the end of the string)print(substring1) # coolprint(substring2) # coolOutput:
xxxxxxxxxxcoolcoolIn this example, we specify the step to iterate e.g every second value from the start of the string.
xxxxxxxxxxtext = "ABCD"substring1 = text[::1] # print every lettersubstring2 = text[::2] # print every second letterprint(substring1) # ABCDprint(substring2) # ACOutput:
xxxxxxxxxxABCDACIn this example, we specify the step to iterate e.g every second value from the end of the string.
xxxxxxxxxxtext = "ABCD"substring1 = text[::-1] # print every letter starting from the endsubstring2 = text[::-2] # print every second letter starting from the endprint(substring1) # DCBAprint(substring2) # DBOutput:
xxxxxxxxxxDCBADB