How to Index Strings in Python

See Python: Tips and Tricks for similar articles.

Indexing is the process of finding a specific element within a sequence of elements through the element's position. Remember that strings are basically sequences of characters. We can use indexing to find a specific character within the string.

  • If we consider the string from left to right, the first character (the left-most) is at position 0.
  • If we consider the string from right to left, the first character (the right-most) is at position -1.

The table below illustrates this for the phrase "MONTY PYTHON". Python Indexing

The following code shows how to find characters by position using indexing.

phrase = "Monty Python"

first_letter = phrase[0]
#[M]onty Python
print(first_letter)

last_letter = phrase[-1]
#Monty Pytho[n]
print(last_letter)

fifth_letter = phrase[4]
#Mont[y] Python
print(fifth_letter)

third_letter_from_end = phrase[-3]
#Monty Pyt[h]on
print(third_letter_from_end)

The expected output for each call to print() is shown in square brackets in the preceding comment.

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