Python
Posted on by Glenn

Python: Text Concatenation

  1. Introduction to Python
  2. Python: Choosing a Text Editor or IDE
  3. Python: Hello World
  4. Python: Variables, Strings and Numbers
  5. Python: Variable Naming
  6. Python: Math, Familiar
  7. Python: Math, Less Familiar
  8. Python: Mathematical Order of Operations
  9. Python: Introducing PEP 8
  10. Python: Text Concatenation
  11. Python: if Statements and Comparison Operators
  12. Python: else and elif statements
  13. Python: Testing Multiple Conditions
  14. Python: Testing Sets of Conditions
  15. Python: Nested if Statements
  16. Python: Lists
  17. Python: Adding To and Changing Lists
  18. Python: Lists: Take a Slice, Delete Elements, Popping Elements
  19. Python: Tuples
  20. Python: for Loops
  21. Python: Nested for Loops
  22. Python: Capturing and Formatting User Input
  23. Python: Dictionaries
  24. Python: Functions
  25. Python: While Loops
  26. Python: Creating and Using Classes
  27. Python: Data Files
  28. Python: Modules
  29. Python: CSV Files
  30. Python: JSON Files
  31. Python: Errors and Exception Handling
  32. Python: Using Pexpect
  33. Python : Using Pexpect : ftpTestOffload.sh
  34. Python : Using Pexpect: ftpTest.py
  35. Python: DCL Conversion to Python

Go to Chapter 8 in A Smarter Way.

Consider how we populate a variable with a string:

first_name = "helen"

last_name = 'keller'

Now we can print them:

print(first_name)

print(last_name)

But this isn’t quite right. The names are on separate lines. We need to either remove the line break from the first print call, or make two print calls on one line.

We can in fact “add” two strings together within a print statement in a couple of ways. We can use commas to separate several arguments, and let print output them one at a time:

print(first_name, last_name)

Notice the spacing in the output: print provides it automatically.

Now try:

print(first_name + last_name)

When we’re concatenating strings to put them in a variable the comma-based syntax in print() above won’t work. It’s an operation of the print function. In all other cases, we use the plus sign to concatenate strings.

full_name = first_name + last_name

Again, notice the spacing in the output: you get exactly what you ask for. And you didn’t ask for a space. This is what you need:

full_name = first_name + " " + last_name

Sometimes you’ll need to put print() calls on multiple lines, but you want the output to be on a single line.

In Python 3, you can use this syntax:

print(first_name, end=””)

This won’t work in Python 2.7, but it will if you import the print_function from Python 3:

from __future__ import print_function

(See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/493386/how-to-print-without-newline-or-space for more information.)

You will have to declare this import at the top of every script in which you will use this syntax in Python 2.6/2.7.

Now you can do something like this:

print(first_name, end="")

print(last_name)

Notice that this format works fine when you run a script, but doesn’t work so well at the python shell command line. If you want to try it there, use this:

print(first_name, end=""); print(last_name)

Exercises

Go to http://introtopython.org/var_string_num.html#Changing-case and scroll down to Combining strings (concatenation). Study this section.

Go to http://www.asmarterway.com/python/8.html.

  1. Edit your examples.py script.
  2. Make the author’s name at least two variables.
  3. Print the two variables to the same line.
  4. Remember your degree variable? It should still be there. Add another print statement on a new line, but make it print on the same line as the author’s name.