Python Development: What are Strings?

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A string is a common data type in programming and is used to denote a message. A string is literally a string of words. In Python, strings are denoted as either single quotes (‘ ’) or double quotes (“ ”).

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Sample messages such as “How are you?” or “Good morning” can both be used as strings when it comes to code and software. In Python, “How are you?” and ‘How are you?’ are the the same. This is different than in C++ where single quotes (‘ ’) are used to denote an individual character.

Example:

greeting1 = “How are you?”
greeting2 = ‘How are you?’

if (greeting1 == greeting2):
(tab) print(“Success!”)
else:
(tab) print(“Error: These are not equal!”)

Run the above program, replacing (tab) with an actual tab in the code and see the result. These are equal strings. Additionally, we see here that strings can be assigned to variables to be used throughout a program.

Why do we care about strings?

Strings are essential for displaying a message and for communicating errors to the end user. In software engineering, a program can only do what it was designed to do. Developers depend on string messages to understand where bugs are in the code and for determining the validity of software.

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Justin Alvey
Rocketfy: A think space for Software Engineers

I’m passionate about #entrepreneurship, #programming, #space, #technology, and #writing.