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Modifying Strings

Strings and Character Data in Python Christopher Bailey 01:59

Strings are immutable, meaning they can’t be modified. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to accomplish changing strings by generating a copy of the original string instead:

Python
      
        
      
    
>>> s = 'mybacon'
>>> s[2] = 'f'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
    s[2] = 'f'
TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment

Here’s how to copy a string:

Python
      
        
      
    
>>> s = 'mybacon'
>>> s = s[:2] + 'f' + s[3:]
>>> s
'myfacon'
>>> s = 'mybacon'
>>> s = s.replace('b', 'f')
>>> s
'myfacon'

If you’d like to learn more, then check out How to Replace a String in Python.

00:00 So, how about modifying strings? Well, basically, you can’t. Strings are immutable.

00:08 Many of the data types you’ve probably seen so far are immutable. Let’s look at this and practice. So, how about a statement like this. Create a string—stick with the string you used earlier, 'mybacon'.

00:20 What if you went to one of the indexes, like let’s say index 2, which would be the letter 'b', and you tried to change it to an 'f'?

00:30 You’ll see that string objects don’t support item assignment. You can’t change the contents—in this case, the single character of the string. It’s immutable. You’d get an error.

00:41 So what if you do want to change it? One of the best answers is making a copy instead. So, to try this out, you’re going to generate a copy of the original string that has the desired change in place. And there’s many ways to do this.

00:56 Here’s one way. If you were to take and reassign s, and you could change up to 2, but not including 2, add a new letter you wanted to add,

01:11 and then tack on the rest of the string, you’d get the same result. In fact, there’s a much simpler way to do this with one of the built-in string methods.

01:20 It’s known as .replace(). If you wanted to change it to 'myfacon', you would just say s = s.replace() and then choose a letter—in this case, 'b' is going to change to the letter 'f'. So, you’re not changing the original string.

01:39 You’re returning from a method a copy of the original object with some of it altered, and assigning it to a new object. In this case, you’re reusing the s object name, but it is a new object.

01:53 The entirety of Section 2 is all about methods that can be applied to strings, and an overview is next.

Uğur on Jan. 27, 2021

It seems that you are big fan of bacon. Don’t you? I strongly suggest you that use a different word something sound nice.

Bartosz Zaczyński RP Team on Jan. 28, 2021

@ugur It’s a long-standing tradition in Python to use names such as spam, ham, egg, or bacon for metasyntactic variables instead of the boring ones like foobar. It’s a reference to a Monty Python comedy sketch entitled Spam. So, I suggest that you start liking bacon 😉

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