Working with Data›Core· 30 min read

Strings

Work with text — joining, slicing, and handy methods.

What you will learn

Join and format strings
Use f-strings
Use string methods

f-strings: the easy way to build text

A string is just text. Often you want to mix variables into a sentence. The cleanest way is an f-string: put an f right before the opening quote and drop variable names inside { } — Python swaps in their values for you.

f-strings

name = "Asha"
score = 95
print(f"{name} scored {score}%")

The f tells Python “this string has slots to fill.” When it runs, {name} is replaced by the value of name (Asha) and {score} by 95. The % is plain text and stays as-is, so you get one tidy sentence — no clumsy + joining or commas needed.

Note: Output: Asha scored 95%

Useful string methods

Strings come with built-in methods — little tools you call with a dot after the text to clean or transform it. Here are four you will use constantly:

strip, upper, split, len

text = "  CodingClave  "
print(text.strip())        # remove spaces -> "CodingClave"
print(text.upper())        # "  CODINGCLAVE  "
print("a,b,c".split(","))  # ['a', 'b', 'c']
print(len("hello"))        # 5

Going line by line: .strip() removes the extra spaces from the start and end, leaving CodingClave. .upper() turns every letter to capitals (the spaces stay, since we used the original text). .split(",") chops a string wherever it finds a comma and gives back a list of the pieces, ['a', 'b', 'c']. Finally len("hello") is not a method but a function that counts the characters — hello has 5.

Note: Output: CodingClave CODINGCLAVE ['a', 'b', 'c'] 5

Q. How do you put a variable inside a string the modern way?

Answer: f-strings — f"Hi {name}" — are the clean, modern way to insert variables into text.

✍️ Practice

Use an f-string to greet someone by name and age.
Clean a messy string with strip() and upper().

🏠 Homework

Take a full name and print the initials using split().