Python strings are said to be arrays of bytes that depict Unicode characters. Distinctively, a character holds a position in a row, which can be ascertained using Python’s index function check. Let us know more detail about ‘Python String Replace’.
Python String Replace
What are strings in Python?
It is conventional to say that strings are sequences of values or characters in quotation marks. Notably, it spans beyond that! When dealing with strings, it’s best to visualize them as arrays.
Before we go further, let’s see what a string in Python is.
Program Codes:
print(title:= “Below is a program displaying characters of a string:\n”)
print(“‘Thanks for reading this article to the end. You have a lot to learn from here!'”)
OUTPUTS:
Below is a program displaying characters of a string:
‘Thanks for reading this article to the end. You have a lot to learn from here!’
The above program codes are strings of characters in quotation marks. Thus, quotation marks are used to denote lines. Notice intelligently that a space is also regarded as a string. This is because it is also a character in the series. When we learn about Python’s string replace and some other string methods, we will understand that floats, integers, etc., and spaces have the same positional qualities when dealing with lines. These are clear insights when we refer to strings as arrays of bytes representing Unicode characters.
Why strings in Python?
Strings help us to translate our natural languages into Python’s understandable language so that computing can be performed. For instance, Python doesn’t understand you when you write (I love this article) but does when you write (“I love this article”).
See the below example to obtain a coherent view:
1st Program Codes:
print(I love this article)
OUTPUT:
File “C:\Users\USER\PycharmProjects\pythonProject9\EdenNation.py”, line 985
print(I love this article)
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Process finished with exit code 1
2nd Program Codes:
print(“I love this article”)
OUTPUT:
I love this article
Process finished with exit code 0
The above program codes and outputs show that strings are an integral part of coding in programming that helps us convert our natural languages into computer understandable languages.
How to use strings in Python:
Strings are denoted with quotation marks, and that’s how they’re used. You can also use strings when dealing with identifiers and variables.
Methods in Python:
I conceptualize methods as those functions used in Python for specific or various purposes. When dealing with string methods, we’re referring to functions we can use to manipulate strings. These include; replace, split, lower, upper, title, translate, etc.
N/B: Functions in python usually have open and close parenthesis attached to them. Thus, we can write the above methods as replace(), split(), lower(), upper(), title(), translate().
Python Replace Function:
Before I explain Python’s string replacement, I want to point out clearly that strings in Python are immutable. This really means that when you perform a certain operation(s) on a string, you get a new string. The replace method will give us some useful insights regarding this.
Python’s string replaces function method is one of the function methods that returns a new string after one or more of the original strings has been tempered. Just as its English meaning points out, that’s how it functions in Python. Also, mainly, the replace function takes two positional arguments in Python and at most three. Usually, the first positional argument is the element that wants to be changed, and the second is the one that will replace the first.
See the example below:
Program Codes:
python_string_replace = (“I’m loving this article”)
changes = python_string_replace.replace(“I’m”,”I am”)
print(python_string_replace)
print(changes)
OUTPUTS:
I’m loving this article
I am loving this article
Carefully go through the above program codes, and you will understand that strings are immutable. Hence, when I printed python_string_replace after making use of Python’s string replace, the result I got was still the same but was different when I used another variable. Also, a dot notation was used in the replace function method to allow the replace function to be able to access the variable that it wants to operate on.
Another interesting illustration I would love to fascinate our view toward has to do with how we should place our arguments in the parenthesis of the string replace function method. The element you want to modify should always come first; else, you will still have the same string outputted.
Let’s see the below example:
Program Codes:
python_string_replace = (“I’m loving this article”)
changes = python_string_replace.replace(“I am”,”I’m”)
print(python_string_replace)
print(changes)
OUTPUTS:
I’m loving this article
I’m loving this article
Notice that in the above program codes, nothing changed. This is a wrong placement of arguments in the replace parenthesis.
Now, I told you earlier that spaces in Python strings are regarded as elements.
Let’s take a look at that;
Program Codes:
python_string_replace = (“I’m loving this article”)
changes = python_string_replace.replace(” “,” happy, “,1)
print(changes)
OUTPUT:
I’m happy; loving this article
We have it that the space after the “I’m” in the above string of characters was replaced with “happy, ” Intriguingly, this time, we made use of three positional arguments. The integer there was used to specify where the string we’re using will occur. If you remove the integer there, the string “happy “will be made to take the position of all the spaces in the above string. Thus, I used 1 (one) to initiate that I want the string to be at the first space.
Let’s see the below to understand that:
Program Codes:
python_string_replace = (“I’m loving this article”)
changes = python_string_replace.replace(” “,” happy, “)
print(changes)
OUTPUTS:
I’m happy, loving happy; this happy, article.
Process finished with exit code 0
Conclusion
Now we have learnt ‘Python String Replace’, Python’s string replaces a notable string function method used in manipulating strings. Mainly takes two positional arguments and helps greatly when replacing a word or a string in a script of code.