Python Built-in Funcitons

String Methods

Below are listed the string methods which both 8-bit strings and Unicode objects support. Some of them are also available on bytearrayobjects.

In addition, Python’s strings support the sequence type methods described in the Sequence Types — str, unicode, list, tuple, bytearray, buffer, xrange section. To output formatted strings use template strings or the % operator described in the String Formatting Operationssection. Also, see the re module for string functions based on regular expressions.

str. capitalize ( )

Return a copy of the string with its first character capitalized and the rest lowercased.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. center ( width [,  fillchar ] )

Return centered in a string of length width. Padding is done using the specified fillchar (default is a space).

Changed in version 2.4: Support for the fillchar argument.

str. count ( sub [,  start [,  end ] ] )

Return the number of non-overlapping occurrences of substring sub in the range [start, end]. Optional arguments start and end are interpreted as in slice notation.

str. decode ( [ encoding [,  errors ] ] )

Decodes the string using the codec registered for encoding. encoding defaults to the default string encoding.  errors may be given to set a different error handling scheme. The default is 'strict', meaning that encoding errors raise UnicodeError. Other possible values are 'ignore', 'replace' and any other name registered via codecs.register_error(), see section Codec Base Classes.

New in version 2.2.

Changed in version 2.3: Support for other error handling schemes added.

Changed in version 2.7: Support for keyword arguments added.

str. encode ( [ encoding [,  errors ] ] )

Return an encoded version of the string. Default encoding is the current default string encoding.  errors may be given to set a different error handling scheme. The default for errors is 'strict', meaning that encoding errors raise a UnicodeError. Other possible values are 'ignore', 'replace', 'xmlcharrefreplace', 'backslashreplace' and any other name registered via codecs.register_error(), see section Codec Base Classes. For a list of possible encodings, see section Standard Encodings.

New in version 2.0.

Changed in version 2.3: Support for 'xmlcharrefreplace' and 'backslashreplace' and other error handling schemes added.

Changed in version 2.7: Support for keyword arguments added.

str. endswith ( suffix [,  start [,  end ] ] )

Return True if the string ends with the specified suffix, otherwise return False.  suffix can also be a tuple of suffixes to look for. With optional start, test beginning at that position. With optional end, stop comparing at that position.

Changed in version 2.5: Accept tuples as suffix.

str. expandtabs ( [ tabsize ] )

Return a copy of the string where all tab characters are replaced by one or more spaces, depending on the current column and the given tab size. Tab positions occur every tabsize characters (default is 8, giving tab positions at columns 0, 8, 16 and so on). To expand the string, the current column is set to zero and the string is examined character by character. If the character is a tab (\t), one or more space characters are inserted in the result until the current column is equal to the next tab position. (The tab character itself is not copied.) If the character is a newline (\n) or return (\r), it is copied and the current column is reset to zero. Any other character is copied unchanged and the current column is incremented by one regardless of how the character is represented when printed.

>>>

>>> '01\t012\t0123\t01234'.expandtabs()
'01      012     0123    01234'
>>> '01\t012\t0123\t01234'.expandtabs(4)
'01  012 0123    01234'

str. find ( sub [,  start [,  end ] ] )

Return the lowest index in the string where substring sub is found within the slice s[start:end]. Optional arguments start and end are interpreted as in slice notation. Return -1 if sub is not found.

Note

 

The find() method should be used only if you need to know the position of sub. To check if sub is a substring or not, use the in operator:

>>>

>>> 'Py' in 'Python'
True

str. format ( *args,  **kwargs )

Perform a string formatting operation. The string on which this method is called can contain literal text or replacement fields delimited by braces {}. Each replacement field contains either the numeric index of a positional argument, or the name of a keyword argument. Returns a copy of the string where each replacement field is replaced with the string value of the corresponding argument.

>>>

>>> "The sum of 1 + 2 is {0}".format(1+2)
'The sum of 1 + 2 is 3'

See Format String Syntax for a description of the various formatting options that can be specified in format strings.

This method of string formatting is the new standard in Python 3, and should be preferred to the % formatting described in String Formatting Operations in new code.

New in version 2.6.

str. index ( sub [,  start [,  end ] ] )

Like find(), but raise ValueError when the substring is not found.

str.isalnum()

Return true if all characters in the string are alphanumeric and there is at least one character, false otherwise.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str.isalpha()

Return true if all characters in the string are alphabetic and there is at least one character, false otherwise.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str.isdigit()

Return true if all characters in the string are digits and there is at least one character, false otherwise.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. islower ( )

Return true if all cased characters [4] in the string are lowercase and there is at least one cased character, false otherwise.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. isspace ( )

Return true if there are only whitespace characters in the string and there is at least one character, false otherwise.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. istitle ( )

Return true if the string is a titlecased string and there is at least one character, for example uppercase characters may only follow uncased characters and lowercase characters only cased ones. Return false otherwise.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. isupper ( )

Return true if all cased characters [4] in the string are uppercase and there is at least one cased character, false otherwise.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. join ( iterable )

Return a string which is the concatenation of the strings in the iterable iterable. The separator between elements is the string providing this method.

str. ljust ( width [,  fillchar ] )

Return the string left justified in a string of length width. Padding is done using the specified fillchar (default is a space). The original string is returned if width is less than or equal to len(s).

Changed in version 2.4: Support for the fillchar argument.

str. lower ( )

Return a copy of the string with all the cased characters [4] converted to lowercase.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. lstrip ( [ chars ] )

Return a copy of the string with leading characters removed. The chars argument is a string specifying the set of characters to be removed. If omitted or None, the chars argument defaults to removing whitespace. The chars argument is not a prefix; rather, all combinations of its values are stripped:

>>>

>>> '   spacious   '.lstrip()
'spacious   '
>>> 'www.example.com'.lstrip('cmowz.')
'example.com'

Changed in version 2.2.2: Support for the chars argument.

str. partition ( sep )

Split the string at the first occurrence of sep, and return a 3-tuple containing the part before the separator, the separator itself, and the part after the separator. If the separator is not found, return a 3-tuple containing the string itself, followed by two empty strings.

New in version 2.5.

str. replace ( old,  new [,  count ] )

Return a copy of the string with all occurrences of substring old replaced by new. If the optional argument count is given, only the first count occurrences are replaced.

str. rfind ( sub [,  start [,  end ] ] )

Return the highest index in the string where substring sub is found, such that sub is contained within s[start:end]. Optional arguments start and end are interpreted as in slice notation. Return -1 on failure.

str. rindex ( sub [,  start [,  end ] ] )

Like rfind() but raises ValueError when the substring sub is not found.

str. rjust ( width [,  fillchar ] )

Return the string right justified in a string of length width. Padding is done using the specified fillchar (default is a space). The original string is returned if width is less than or equal to len(s).

Changed in version 2.4: Support for the fillchar argument.

str. rpartition ( sep )

Split the string at the last occurrence of sep, and return a 3-tuple containing the part before the separator, the separator itself, and the part after the separator. If the separator is not found, return a 3-tuple containing two empty strings, followed by the string itself.

New in version 2.5.

str. rsplit ( [ sep [,  maxsplit ] ] )

Return a list of the words in the string, using sep as the delimiter string. If maxsplit is given, at most maxsplit splits are done, the rightmost ones. If sep is not specified or None, any whitespace string is a separator. Except for splitting from the right, rsplit()behaves like split() which is described in detail below.

New in version 2.4.

str. rstrip ( [ chars ] )

Return a copy of the string with trailing characters removed. The chars argument is a string specifying the set of characters to be removed. If omitted or None, the chars argument defaults to removing whitespace. The chars argument is not a suffix; rather, all combinations of its values are stripped:

>>>

>>> '   spacious   '.rstrip()
'   spacious'
>>> 'mississippi'.rstrip('ipz')
'mississ'

Changed in version 2.2.2: Support for the chars argument.

str. split ( [ sep [,  maxsplit ] ] )

Return a list of the words in the string, using sep as the delimiter string. If maxsplit is given, at most maxsplit splits are done (thus, the list will have at most maxsplit+1 elements). If maxsplit is not specified or -1, then there is no limit on the number of splits (all possible splits are made).

If sep is given, consecutive delimiters are not grouped together and are deemed to delimit empty strings (for example, '1,,2'.split(',') returns ['1', '', '2']). The sep argument may consist of multiple characters (for example, '1<>2<>3'.split('<>')returns ['1', '2', '3']). Splitting an empty string with a specified separator returns [''].

If sep is not specified or is None, a different splitting algorithm is applied: runs of consecutive whitespace are regarded as a single separator, and the result will contain no empty strings at the start or end if the string has leading or trailing whitespace. Consequently, splitting an empty string or a string consisting of just whitespace with a None separator returns [].

For example, ' 1  2   3  '.split() returns ['1', '2', '3'], and '  1  2   3  '.split(None, 1) returns ['1', '2   3  '].

str. splitlines ( [ keepends ] )

Return a list of the lines in the string, breaking at line boundaries. This method uses the universal newlines approach to splitting lines. Line breaks are not included in the resulting list unless keepends is given and true.

For example, 'ab c\n\nde fg\rkl\r\n'.splitlines() returns ['ab c', '', 'de fg', 'kl'], while the same call with splitlines(True)returns ['ab c\n', '\n', 'de fg\r', 'kl\r\n'].

Unlike split() when a delimiter string sep is given, this method returns an empty list for the empty string, and a terminal line break does not result in an extra line.

str. startswith ( prefix [,  start [,  end ] ] )

Return True if string starts with the prefix, otherwise return False. prefix can also be a tuple of prefixes to look for. With optional start, test string beginning at that position. With optional end, stop comparing string at that position.

Changed in version 2.5: Accept tuples as prefix.

str. strip ( [ chars ] )

Return a copy of the string with the leading and trailing characters removed. The chars argument is a string specifying the set of characters to be removed. If omitted or None, the chars argument defaults to removing whitespace. The chars argument is not a prefix or suffix; rather, all combinations of its values are stripped:

>>>

>>> '   spacious   '.strip()
'spacious'
>>> 'www.example.com'.strip('cmowz.')
'example'

Changed in version 2.2.2: Support for the chars argument.

str. swapcase ( )

Return a copy of the string with uppercase characters converted to lowercase and vice versa.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. title ( )

Return a titlecased version of the string where words start with an uppercase character and the remaining characters are lowercase.

The algorithm uses a simple language-independent definition of a word as groups of consecutive letters. The definition works in many contexts but it means that apostrophes in contractions and possessives form word boundaries, which may not be the desired result:

>>>

>>> "they're bill's friends from the UK".title()
"They'Re Bill'S Friends From The Uk"

A workaround for apostrophes can be constructed using regular expressions:

>>>

>>> import re
>>> def titlecase(s):
...     return re.sub(r"[A-Za-z]+('[A-Za-z]+)?",
...                   lambda mo: mo.group(0)[0].upper() +
...                              mo.group(0)[1:].lower(),
...                   s)
...
>>> titlecase("they're bill's friends.")
"They're Bill's Friends."

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. translate ( table [,  deletechars ] )

Return a copy of the string where all characters occurring in the optional argument deletechars are removed, and the remaining characters have been mapped through the given translation table, which must be a string of length 256.

You can use the maketrans() helper function in the string module to create a translation table. For string objects, set the tableargument to None for translations that only delete characters:

>>>

>>> 'read this short text'.translate(None, 'aeiou')
'rd ths shrt txt'

New in version 2.6: Support for a None table argument.

For Unicode objects, the translate() method does not accept the optional deletechars argument. Instead, it returns a copy of the swhere all characters have been mapped through the given translation table which must be a mapping of Unicode ordinals to Unicode ordinals, Unicode strings or None. Unmapped characters are left untouched. Characters mapped to None are deleted. Note, a more flexible approach is to create a custom character mapping codec using the codecs module (see encodings.cp1251 for an example).

str. upper ( )

Return a copy of the string with all the cased characters [4] converted to uppercase. Note that str.upper().isupper() might be Falseif s contains uncased characters or if the Unicode category of the resulting character(s) is not “Lu” (Letter, uppercase), but e.g. “Lt” (Letter, titlecase).

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

str. zfill ( width )

Return the numeric string left filled with zeros in a string of length width. A sign prefix is handled correctly. The original string is returned if width is less than or equal to len(s).

New in version 2.2.2.

The following methods are present only on unicode objects:

unicode. isnumeric ( )

Return True if there are only numeric characters in S, False otherwise. Numeric characters include digit characters, and all characters that have the Unicode numeric value property, e.g. U+2155, VULGAR FRACTION ONE FIFTH.

unicode. isdecimal ( )

Return True if there are only decimal characters in S, False otherwise. Decimal characters include digit characters, and all characters that can be used to form decimal-radix numbers, e.g. U+0660, ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ZERO.

Sequence Types — str, unicode, list, tuple, bytearray, buffer, xrange

There are seven sequence types: strings, Unicode strings, lists, tuples, bytearrays, buffers, and xrange objects.

Operation	Result	Notes
x in s	True if an item of s is equal to x, else False	(1)
x not in s	False if an item of s is equal to x, else True	(1)
s + t	the concatenation of s and t	(6)
s * n, n * s	equivalent to adding s to itself n times	(2)
s[i]	ith item of s, origin 0	(3)
s[i:j]	slice of s from i to j	(3)(4)
s[i:j:k]	slice of s from i to j with step k	(3)(5)
len(s)	length of s
min(s)	smallest item of s
max(s)	largest item of s
s.index(x)	index of the first occurrence of x in s
s.count(x)	total number of occurrences of x in s

x / y	quotient of x and y	(1)
x // y	(floored) quotient of x and y	(4)(5)
x % y	remainder of x / y	(4)
-x	x negated
+x	x unchanged
abs(x)	absolute value or magnitude of x	(3)
int(x)	x converted to integer	(2)
long(x)	x converted to long integer	(2)
float(x)	x converted to floating point	(6)
complex(re,im)	a complex number with real part re, imaginary part im. im defaults to zero.
c.conjugate()	conjugate of the complex number c. (Identity on real numbers)
divmod(x, y)	the pair (x // y, x % y)	(3)(4)
pow(x, y)	x to the power y	(3)(7)
x ** y	x to the power y