---
title: Manipulating strings - Python Cheatsheet
description: An escape character is created by typing a backslash \ followed by the character you want to insert.
---

<base-title :title="frontmatter.title" :description="frontmatter.description">
Manipulating Strings
</base-title>

## Escape characters

An escape character is created by typing a backslash `\` followed by the character you want to insert.

| Escape character | Prints as            |
| ---------------- | -------------------- |
| `\'`             | Single quote         |
| `\"`             | Double quote         |
| `\t`             | Tab                  |
| `\n`             | Newline (line break) |
| `\\`             | Backslash            |
| `\b`             | Backspace            |
| `\ooo`           | Octal value          |
| `\r`             | Carriage Return      |

```python
>>> print("Hello there!\nHow are you?\nI\'m doing fine.")
# Hello there!
# How are you?
# I'm doing fine.
```

## Raw strings

A raw string entirely ignores all escape characters and prints any backslash that appears in the string.

```python
>>> print(r"Hello there!\nHow are you?\nI\'m doing fine.")
# Hello there!\nHow are you?\nI\'m doing fine.
```

Raw strings are mostly used for <router-link to="/cheatsheet/regular-expressions">regular expression</router-link> definition.

## Multiline Strings

```python
>>> print(
... """Dear Alice,
...
... Eve's cat has been arrested for catnapping,
... cat burglary, and extortion.
...
... Sincerely,
... Bob"""
... )

# Dear Alice,

# Eve's cat has been arrested for catnapping,
# cat burglary, and extortion.

# Sincerely,
# Bob
```

## Indexing and Slicing strings

    H   e   l   l   o       w   o   r   l   d    !
    0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11

### Indexing

```python
>>> spam = 'Hello world!'

>>> spam[0]
# 'H'

>>> spam[4]
# 'o'

>>> spam[-1]
# '!'
```

### Slicing

```python
>>> spam = 'Hello world!'

>>> spam[0:5]
# 'Hello'

>>> spam[:5]
# 'Hello'

>>> spam[6:]
# 'world!'

>>> spam[6:-1]
# 'world'

>>> spam[:-1]
# 'Hello world'

>>> spam[::-1]
# '!dlrow olleH'

>>> fizz = spam[0:5]
>>> fizz
# 'Hello'
```

## The in and not in operators

```python
>>> 'Hello' in 'Hello World'
# True

>>> 'Hello' in 'Hello'
# True

>>> 'HELLO' in 'Hello World'
# False

>>> '' in 'spam'
# True

>>> 'cats' not in 'cats and dogs'
# False
```

## upper(), lower() and title()

Transforms a string to upper, lower and title case:

```python
>>> greet = 'Hello world!'
>>> greet.upper()
# 'HELLO WORLD!'

>>> greet.lower()
# 'hello world!'

>>> greet.title()
# 'Hello World!'
```

## isupper() and islower() methods

Returns `True` or `False` after evaluating if a string is in upper or lower case:

```python
>>> spam = 'Hello world!'
>>> spam.islower()
# False

>>> spam.isupper()
# False

>>> 'HELLO'.isupper()
# True

>>> 'abc12345'.islower()
# True

>>> '12345'.islower()
# False

>>> '12345'.isupper()
# False
```

## The isX string methods

| Method      | Description                                                                                                                    |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| isalpha()   | returns `True` if the string consists only of letters.                                                                         |
| isalnum()   | returns `True` if the string consists only of letters and numbers.                                                             |
| isdecimal() | returns `True` if the string consists only of numbers.                                                                         |
| isspace()   | returns `True` if the string consists only of spaces, tabs, and new-lines.                                                     |
| istitle()   | returns `True` if the string consists only of words that begin with an uppercase letter followed by only lowercase characters. |

## startswith() and endswith()

```python
>>> 'Hello world!'.startswith('Hello')
# True

>>> 'Hello world!'.endswith('world!')
# True

>>> 'abc123'.startswith('abcdef')
# False

>>> 'abc123'.endswith('12')
# False

>>> 'Hello world!'.startswith('Hello world!')
# True

>>> 'Hello world!'.endswith('Hello world!')
# True
```

## join() and split()

### join()

The `join()` method takes all the items in an iterable, like a <router-link to="/cheatsheet/lists-and-tuples">list</router-link>, <router-link to="/cheatsheet/dictionaries">dictionary</router-link>, <router-link to="/cheatsheet/lists-and-tuples#the-tuple-data-type">tuple</router-link> or <router-link to="/cheatsheet/sets">set</router-link>, and joins them into a string. You can also specify a separator.

```python
>>> ''.join(['My', 'name', 'is', 'Simon'])
'MynameisSimon'

>>> ', '.join(['cats', 'rats', 'bats'])
# 'cats, rats, bats'

>>> ' '.join(['My', 'name', 'is', 'Simon'])
# 'My name is Simon'

>>> 'ABC'.join(['My', 'name', 'is', 'Simon'])
# 'MyABCnameABCisABCSimon'
```

### split()

The `split()` method splits a `string` into a `list`. By default, it will use whitespace to separate the items, but you can also set another character of choice:

```python
>>> 'My name is Simon'.split()
# ['My', 'name', 'is', 'Simon']

>>> 'MyABCnameABCisABCSimon'.split('ABC')
# ['My', 'name', 'is', 'Simon']

>>> 'My name is Simon'.split('m')
# ['My na', 'e is Si', 'on']

>>> ' My  name is  Simon'.split()
# ['My', 'name', 'is', 'Simon']

>>> ' My  name is  Simon'.split(' ')
# ['', 'My', '', 'name', 'is', '', 'Simon']
```

## Justifying text with rjust(), ljust() and center()

```python
>>> 'Hello'.rjust(10)
# '     Hello'

>>> 'Hello'.rjust(20)
# '               Hello'

>>> 'Hello World'.rjust(20)
# '         Hello World'

>>> 'Hello'.ljust(10)
# 'Hello     '

>>> 'Hello'.center(20)
# '       Hello       '
```

An optional second argument to `rjust()` and `ljust()` will specify a fill character apart from a space character:

```python
>>> 'Hello'.rjust(20, '*')
# '***************Hello'

>>> 'Hello'.ljust(20, '-')
# 'Hello---------------'

>>> 'Hello'.center(20, '=')
# '=======Hello========'
```

## Removing whitespace with strip(), rstrip(), and lstrip()

```python
>>> spam = '    Hello World     '
>>> spam.strip()
# 'Hello World'

>>> spam.lstrip()
# 'Hello World     '

>>> spam.rstrip()
# '    Hello World'

>>> spam = 'SpamSpamBaconSpamEggsSpamSpam'
>>> spam.strip('ampS')
# 'BaconSpamEggs'
```

## The Count Method

Counts the number of occurrences of a given character or substring in the string it is applied to. Can be optionally provided start and end index.

```python
>>> sentence = 'one sheep two sheep three sheep four'
>>> sentence.count('sheep')
# 3

>>> sentence.count('e')
# 9

>>> sentence.count('e', 6)
# 8
# returns count of e after 'one sh' i.e 6 chars since beginning of string

>>> sentence.count('e', 7)
# 7
```

## Replace Method

Replaces all occurences of a given substring with another substring. Can be optionally provided a third argument to limit the number of replacements. Returns a new string.

```python
>>> text = "Hello, world!"
>>> text.replace("world", "planet")
# 'Hello, planet!'

>>> fruits = "apple, banana, cherry, apple"
>>> fruits.replace("apple", "orange", 1)
# 'orange, banana, cherry, apple'

>>> sentence = "I like apples, Apples are my favorite fruit"
>>> sentence.replace("apples", "oranges")
# 'I like oranges, Apples are my favorite fruit'
```