3. Length

len() is a built-in function that returns how many characters a string has. Its signature is:

  • text — a string, or any other object that has a length.

Every character counts as one: letters, digits, spaces and punctuation. "Hello world" has 11 characters because the space between the words is also a character.

The length is useful together with indexing. The valid indexes of a string go from 0 to len(text) - 1, so text[len(text) - 1] is the same as text[-1]: the last character.

len() also works on lists; you used it in the lists chapter. With a string it counts characters, not words.

Coming from JavaScript? len(text) is text.length. It is a function, not a property, and it also works on lists, tuples, dicts and sets.

#01

Length of a string

len() returns how many characters a string has.

Print the length of "Python".

Print exactly:

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#02

The empty string

"" is a string with no characters.

Print the length of the empty string.

Print exactly:

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#03

Spaces are characters

Every character counts, including the space between two words.

Create a variable named phrase with the value "Hello world", then print its length.

Print exactly:

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#04

Last index from the length

The valid indexes go from 0 to len(word) - 1.

Create a variable named word with the value "Python", then print its last character by indexing word with len(word) - 1.

Print exactly:

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