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17.7: String Slices

  • Page ID
    103163
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    A segment of a string is called a slice. Selecting a slice is similar to selecting a character:

    >>> s = 'Monty Python'
    >>> print(s[0:5])
    Monty
    >>> print(s[6:12])
    Python

    The operator returns the part of the string from the "n-eth" character to the "m-eth" character, including the first but excluding the last.

    If you omit the first index (before the colon), the slice starts at the beginning of the string. If you omit the second index, the slice goes to the end of the string:

    >>> fruit = 'banana'
    >>> fruit[:3]
    'ban'
    >>> fruit[3:]
    'ana'

    If the first index is greater than or equal to the second the result is an empty string, represented by two quotation marks:

    >>> fruit = 'banana'
    >>> fruit[3:3]
    ''

    An empty string contains no characters and has length 0, but other than that, it is the same as any other string.

    Exercise 2: Given that fruit is a string, what does fruit[:] mean?


    This page titled 17.7: String Slices is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Chuck Severance via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.