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Online Python

🔄 Splitting and Joining Strings

Strings often need to be broken apart or combined. Python makes this easy with the .split() and .join() methods. These are essential tools for text processing, data cleaning, and working with user input.

# Basic string splitting
sentence = "Python is fun to learn"
words = sentence.split()  # Split by whitespace
print(f"Words: {words}")

# Joining words back together
new_sentence = " ".join(words)
print(f"Joined: {new_sentence}")

🎯 Splitting Strings

The .split() method breaks a string into a list of smaller strings. You can split by any character or sequence of characters.

Basic Splitting Examples

# Different ways to split strings
text = "apple,banana,orange"
csv_line = "John,Doe,30,New York"

# Split by comma
fruits = text.split(",")
print(f"Fruits: {fruits}")

# Split with maximum splits
name, *details = csv_line.split(",", 1)
print(f"Name: {name}")
print(f"Details: {details}")

Common Splitting Patterns

# Common splitting scenarios
# 1. Split by multiple spaces
text = "Python    is    awesome"
words = text.split()
print(f"Words: {words}")

# 2. Split by newlines
poem = """Roses are red
Violets are blue
Python is fun"""
lines = poem.split("\n")
print(f"Lines: {lines}")

# 3. Split by multiple delimiters
data = "name:John,age:30;city:NY"
pairs = data.replace(";", ",").split(",")
print(f"Pairs: {pairs}")

🎨 Joining Strings

The .join() method combines a list of strings into a single string, using the string it's called on as the separator.

Basic Joining Examples

# Different ways to join strings
words = ["Python", "is", "awesome"]

# Join with space
sentence = " ".join(words)
print(f"With spaces: {sentence}")

# Join with comma
csv_line = ",".join(words)
print(f"CSV format: {csv_line}")

# Join with no separator
combined = "".join(words)
print(f"Combined: {combined}")

Practical Applications

# Real-world examples
# 1. Building a file path
parts = ["home", "user", "documents", "file.txt"]
path = "/".join(parts)
print(f"Path: {path}")

# 2. Creating a CSV line
data = ["John", "30", "New York"]
csv_line = ",".join(data)
print(f"CSV: {csv_line}")

# 3. Building a URL
url_parts = ["https:", "", "example.com", "api", "users"]
url = "/".join(url_parts)
print(f"URL: {url}")

📝 Quick Practice

Let's practice splitting and joining strings with a simple exercise!

Hands-on Exercise

Clean and format a messy string of names.

python
# String Practice
messy_names = "john,  mary,  alex  , sarah"

# TODO: Clean and format the names
# 1. Split the string by comma
# 2. Clean each name (remove spaces, capitalize)
# 3. Join back with comma and space

# Print the result
print(f"Cleaned names: {cleaned_names}")

Solution and Explanation 💡

Click to see the solution
# String Practice Solution
messy_names = "john,  mary,  alex  , sarah"

# Split by comma
names = messy_names.split(",")

# Clean each name
cleaned_names = [name.strip().title() for name in names]

# Join back with comma and space
result = ", ".join(cleaned_names)

print(f"Cleaned names: {result}")

Key Learning Points:

  • 📌 Used .split(",") to break the string into a list
  • 📌 Used .strip() to remove extra spaces
  • 📌 Used .title() to capitalize names
  • 📌 Used ", ".join() to combine with proper formatting

🎯 Key Takeaways

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