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String Slicing in Python

String slicing in Python allows accessing parts of a string starting from a given index up to but not including another index, optionally by a specified increment. The format is stringname[start:end:increment] where start and end are indexes and increment is the step size. If start is omitted it defaults to 0, if end is omitted it defaults to the last index, and if increment is omitted it defaults to 1. Both positive and negative indexes can be used, with negative indexing accessing the string in reverse order. String slicing can be used to extract substrings, reverse strings, and work with date strings.

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343 views3 pages

String Slicing in Python

String slicing in Python allows accessing parts of a string starting from a given index up to but not including another index, optionally by a specified increment. The format is stringname[start:end:increment] where start and end are indexes and increment is the step size. If start is omitted it defaults to 0, if end is omitted it defaults to the last index, and if increment is omitted it defaults to 1. Both positive and negative indexes can be used, with negative indexing accessing the string in reverse order. String slicing can be used to extract substrings, reverse strings, and work with date strings.

Uploaded by

ratheeshbr
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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String Slicing in Python

String in Python is stored as an array so array indexing can be used to access


characters of a String, for example str[0] returns first character of the String str.
You may have a scenario where you want to access a part of String rather than a
single character, in that case you can use string slicing using slice operator in
Python.

Python string slicing

Format of String slicing is as follows-

Stringname[start_position: end_position: increment_step]


 start_position is the index from which the string slicing starts,
start_position is included.
 end_position is the index at which the string slicing ends, end_position is
excluded.
 increment_step indicates the step size. For example if step is given as 2
then every alternate character from start_position is accessed.

All of these parameters are optional, if start_position is not specified then the


slicing starts from index 0. If end_position is not specified then the slicing ends at
string_length – 1 (last index). If increment_step is not specified then increment
step is 1 by default.

Python string slicing examples

1- A simple example where substring from index 2..3 is required.

s = "Python String Slicing"


print(s[2: 4: 1])

Output

th

Here slicing is done from index 2 (start_pos) to index 3 (end_pos-1). Step size is 1.

2- If no parameters are specified.

s = "Python String Slicing"


#both are valid
print(s[:])
print(s[: :])
Output

Python String Slicing


Python String Slicing

3- String slicing when step size is greater than one.

s = "Python String Slicing"


print(s[3: 8 : 2])

Output

hnS

Since the step size is 2 so every other character with in the limits of start_pos and
end_pos is accessed.

4- Using string slicing in conjunction with other Python string methods. For example
if there is a data in dd/mm/yyyy format and you want to access only the month
part. In this case you can use index method to specify the start and end positions
for slicing.

s = "03/05/2019"
print(s[s.index("/")+1: s.rindex("/") : 1])

Output

05

String slicing with negative indexing

In string in Python you can also use negative indexing. When negative number is
used as index String is accessed backward so -1 refers to the last character, -2
second last and so on.

1- Reversing the string using slicing. By providing increment_step as -1 you can


reverse a string.
s = "Hello World"
reversed = s[: :-1]
print(reversed)

Output

dlroW olleH

2- Using negative value as start position and step size is +1.

s = "Hello World"
str = s[-5: :]
print(str)

Output

World

Here step size is +1 so the indices that are accessed are -5, -4, -3, -2, -1

That's all for this topic String Slicing in Python. If you have any doubt or any
suggestions to make please drop a comment

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