7.

String Methods

Topics:
Methods and Data
More on Strings
Functions and Methods
The String Class
 Data + Functions Together
“The square root of nine is three.”
The tone of this comment is that the
square root function can be applied to
numbers like nine.

“Three is nine’s square root.” A

The tone of this comment is that new
point
the number nine (like all numbers) of
comes equipped with a sqrt function. view
 Methods

A special kind of function that is very important

to object-oriented programming is called a
method.

In this style of programming, there is a tight

coupling between structured data and the
methods that work with that data.
 Methods
Hard to appreciate the reasons for this coupling
between data and methods so early in the
course.

For now, we settle on getting used to the

special notation that is associated with the
use of methods.

We will get into this topic using strings.

 Three String Methods

count How many times does string t

occur in a string s?

find Where is the first occurrence of

string t in a string s?

replace In a string s replace all occurrences

of a string s1 with a string s2.

There will be others later in the course.

Designing count as a Function

count How many times does string y

occur in a string x?

‘ITH-JFK-ITH’
count 2
‘ITH’

It would then be used like this: n = count(y,x)

 Designing count as a Method
Suppose
x = ‘ITH-JFK-ITH’
y = ‘ITH’

Instead of the usual function-call syntax

n = count(y,x)

we will write
n = x.count(y)
 Methods: The Notation

Here is the syntax associated with using

a string method:

name of string name of method (arg1,arg2,…)

Once again, the ‘dot” notation

 String Methods: count

>>> s =‘ITH-JFK-ITH’
>>> m = s.count(‘ITH’)

s --> I T H - J F K - I T H
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

m --> 2

s1.count(s2) the number of occurrences of string s2 in string s1

 String Methods: count

>>> s =‘ITH-JFK-ITH’
>>> m = s.count(‘LGA’)

s --> I T H - J F K - I T H
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

m --> 0

s1.count(s2) the number of occurrences of string s2 in string s1

 count
The Formal Definition

If s1 and s2 are strings, then

s1.count(s2)

returns an int value that is the number of

occurrences of string s2 in string s1.

Note, in general s1.count(s2) is not the same as s2.count(s1)

 Using count: An Example
# Count the number of vowels…
A = ‘auric goldfinger’
n = 0
n = n + A.count(‘a’)
n = n + A.count(‘e’)
n = n + A.count(‘i’)
n = n + A.count(‘o’)
n = n + A.count(‘u’)
print n

Illegal: n = A.count(‘a’ or ‘e’ or ‘I’ or ‘o’ or ‘u’)

 Designing find as a Function

find Where is the first occurrence of

string y in a string x?

‘ITH-JFK-ITH’
find 3
‘-’

It would then be used like this: n = find(y,x)

 Designing find as a Method
>>> s =‘ITH-JFK-ITH’
>>> idx = s.find(‘JFK’)

s --> I T H - J F K - I T H
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

idx --> 4

s1.index(s2) the index of the first occurrence of string s2 in string s1

 String Methods: find

>>> s =‘ITH-JFK-ITH’
>>> idx = s.find(‘RFK’)

s --> I T H - J F K - I T H
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

idx --> -1

s1.index(s2) evaluates to -1 if there is no occurrence of s2 in s1

 find
The Formal Definition
If s1 and s2 are strings, then

s1.find(s2)

returns an int value that is the index of the

first occurrence of string s2 in string s1.

If there is no such occurrence, then the value -1

is returned.
 Using find : Some Examples

s = ‘nine one one’

n1 = s.find(‘one’)
n2 = s.find(‘two’)
n3 = s.find(‘ nine’)

n1 -> 5 n2 -> -1 n3 -> -1

 in : A Handy Boolean Device
If s1 and s2 are strings, then

s1 in s2

is a boolean-valued expression.

True if there is an instance of s1 in s2.

False if there is NOT an instance of s1 in s2.
 in versus find

These are equivalent:

x = s1 in s2

x = s2.find(s1)>=0
 Designing replace as a Function

replace In a string s replace all occurrences

of a string s1 with a string s2.

‘ITH-JFK-ITH’
‘ITH’ replace ‘??-JFK-??’
‘??’

It would then be used like this: sNew = replace(s,s1,s2)

Designing replace as a Method

s = ‘one hundred and one’

t = s.replace(‘ ’,’-’)

s -> ‘one hundred and one’

t -> ‘one-hundred-and-one’

Replacing one character with another

 The replace Method

s = ‘one hundred and one’

t = s.replace(‘ ’,‘’)

s -> ‘one hundred and one’

t -> ‘onehundredandone’
The null string
has length 0.

Replacing each blank with the “null string”

 The replace Method

s = ‘one hundred and one’

t = s.replace(‘x’,‘-’)

s -> ‘one hundred and one’

t -> ‘one hundred and one’

No change if the character to be replaced is missing

 The replace Method

s = ‘one hundred and one’

t = s.replace(‘one’,‘seven’)

s -> ‘one hundred and one’

t -> ‘seven hundred and seven’

Replacing one substring with another

 The replace Method

s = ‘one hundred and one’

t = s.replace(‘two’,’seven’)

s -> ‘one hundred and one’

t -> ‘one hundred and one’

No change if the designated substring is missing

 replace
The Formal Definition
If s, s1 and s2 are strings, then

s.replace(s1,s2)

returns a copy of the string s in which every

non- overlapping occurrence of the string s1 is
replaced by the string s2.

If s1 is not a substring of s, then the returned

string is just a copy of s.
Using replace : Some Examples

s = ‘xxx’
t1 = s.replace(‘x’,‘o’)
t2 = s.replace(‘xx’,‘o’)
t3 = s.replace(‘xx’,‘oo’)

t1 -> ‘ooo’

t2 -> ‘ox’
t3 -> ‘oox’
 replace does Not Replace

s.replace(s1,s2) does not change the value

of s.

It produces a copy of s with the specified

replacements.

You are allowed to overwrite the “original” s

with the its “updated” copy:

s = s.replace(s1,s2)
 Illegal!
s = ‘abcdefgh’
s[5] = ‘x’

Strings are immutable. They cannot be

changed.

Have to ``live with’’ the replace function,

slicing, and concatenation

s = ‘abcdefgh’
s = s[:5]+’x’+s[6:]
Quickly Review Some
Other String Methods
The upper and lower Methods

s = ‘A2sh?’ s -> ‘A2sh?’

t1 = s.upper() t1 -> ‘A2SH?’
t2 = s.lower() t2 -> ‘a2sh?’
Some Boolean-Valued Methods

These methods return either True or False:

islower()
isupper()
isalnum()
isalpha()
isdigit()
 Boolean-Valued Methods

s=‘ab3?’ s=‘AbcD’ s=‘AB3’

s.islower() True False False

s.isupper() False False True

 Boolean-Valued Methods

‘23’ ‘5a7’ ‘ab’ ‘-2.3’

s.isalnum() True True True False

s.isalpha() False False True False

s.isdigit() True False False False

 Useful String Constants

alpha = string.letters

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
 Useful String Constants

specialChar = string.punctuation

!"#$%&'()*+,./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{|}~
 Useful String Constants

TheDigits = string.digits

1234567890
 The “Dot” Notation--Again

We have seen it with modules and import

math.sqrt
math.py math.pi

pi=3.1416 The “folder metaphor.

sqrt The “dot” means “go inside

and get this”
string is a “Special” Module
“string.py”
The “folder”
digits = ‘01234567890’
metaphor.
letters = ‘abcdef etc
The “dot” means
punctuation =‘!"#$ etc
“go inside and
count isupper isalnum
get this”

find islower isalpha string is actually

a “class”. More
replace isdigit in a few lectures.