Python Standard Library

The string Module

The string module contains a number of functions to process standard Python strings, as shown in Example 1-51.

Example 1-51. Using the string Module

File: string-example-1.py

import string

text = "Monty Python's Flying Circus"

print "upper", "=>", string.upper(text)
print "lower", "=>", string.lower(text)
print "split", "=>", string.split(text)
print "join", "=>", string.join(string.split(text), "+")
print "replace", "=>", string.replace(text, "Python", "Java")
print "find", "=>", string.find(text, "Python"), string.find(text, "Java")
print "count", "=>", string.count(text, "n")

upper => MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS
lower => monty python's flying circus
split => ['Monty', "Python's", 'Flying', 'Circus']
join => Monty+Python's+Flying+Circus
replace => Monty Java's Flying Circus
find => 6 -1
count => 3

In Python 1.5.2 and earlier, the string module uses functions from the strop implementation module where possible.

In Python 1.6 and later, most string operations are made available as string methods as well, as shown in Example 1-52. Many of the functions in the string module are simply wrapper functions that call the corresponding string method.

Example 1-52. Using string Methods Instead of string Module Functions

File: string-example-2.py text = "Monty Python's Flying Circus" print "upper", "=>", text.upper() print "lower", "=>", text.lower() print "split", "=>", text.split() print "join", "=>", "+".join(text.split()) print "replace", "=>", text.replace("Python", "Perl") ...