Accessing characters of string in Python

String manipulation is a fundamental part of programming, and Python has a powerful set of tools to handle strings. In Python, a string is a sequence of characters in single or double quotes. Accessing individual characters within a string is a common operation that every programmer should know. In this tutorial, we will explore the different ways to access and manipulate the characters of a string in Python, as well as some common mistakes to avoid. So, let's get started and dive into the world of string manipulation in Python!

Accessing characters of string :

• Different Ways of Accessing characters of string in python are :
  • Accessing a single character
  • Accessing a range of characters
  • Accessing every n^th character

Accessing a single character of a string:

• We can use the indexing operator  [ ]  with an index value to access a single character of a string.
• Index values start from  0  for the first character and go up to   n - 1  for a string of length  n .
• We can use negative indexing to access characters from the end of the string with  -1  being the last character.
• Example: 

my_str = "Hello, world!"
print(my_str[0])
print(my_str[4])
print(my_str[-1])
print(my_str[-2])


# Output
# H
# o
# !
# d


   
   

Accessing a range of characters of a string:

• We can use the slicing operator  [ : ]  with start and end index values to access a range of characters of a string.
• The range includes all characters from the start index up to but not including the end index.
• Example:

my_string = "Hello, world!"
print(my_string[0:5])
print(my_string[7:])
print(my_string[:5])

# Output
# Hello
# world!
# Hello

Accessing every n^th character of a string:

• We can use the slicing operator  [start:end:step]  with a step value to access every n^th character of a string.
• Example:

my_string = "12345678"
print(my_string[::2])

# Output
# 1357

 

Modifying characters of a string:

• Unlike some other programming languages, Python strings are immutable, 
• which means that once they are created, they cannot be modified.
• However, you can create a new string by slicing and concatenating parts of the original string.
• Example:

my_string = "Hello, world!"
new_string = my_string[:6] + "Kolledge!"
print(new_string)

# Output
# Hello,Kolledge!