1.4. Compute with Words¶
The computer can also compute with words, or more accurately, with strings which are sequences of characters. We can create a string by typing characters between a pair of single ('Hi'), double ("Hi"), or triple quotes (‘’’Hi’’’). We can “compute” with strings using some of the same basic arithmetic operators – they just mean something different here. Here we generate silly song lyrics by using + to combine (append) two strings and * to repeat strings.
Underneath the program below, to the right of the Run button 
, you’ll see the button to open the audio tour for this program: 
. Click on that button and then click on “Line-by-line Tour” to hear the audio tour. You can use the provided buttons to pause, play, jump ahead, or go back.
A string can also be asked to return a new string that is changed in some way from the original string. In the example below, we’ll take a string in all-caps and turn it into a nicely capitalized sentence. This example uses dot-notation (sentence.lower()) which is the way to tell a string how we want it to change.
- Hi There
- When you add strings together you copy the second string right after the first, without any added space
- HiThere
- Remember that * 2 repeats two copies of the same string
- Hi There Hi There
- Adding strings together and repeating them doesn't add spaces between the strings
- HiThereHiThere
- Strings are added together without adding any space and they are repeated without adding a space
- HiThere2
- The * 2 repeats the string two times
What would the following code print?
first = "Hi"
next = "There"
print ((first + next) * 2)