Chopping and Combining (Working with Text)

Working with numbers is about calculation, but working with text—or strings—is about communication. You'll constantly need to prepare your text to be shown to a user, whether it's a welcome message, a menu item, or an error warning.

Let's look at the three most common ways you'll work with strings: combining them, inspecting their properties, and changing their style.

1. Combining: "Pen Pineapple Apple Pen"

The most frequent task you'll perform with strings is joining them together to create new, more meaningful messages. This process is called concatenation. 🔗

It's like connecting two train cars to make a longer train. In many languages, you can use the same + symbol you used for addition to concatenate strings.

first_part = "Pen Pineapple"
second_part = "Apple Pen"

# Concatenate the strings with a space in between
combined = first_part + " " + second_part

print(combined) # Displays "Pen Pineapple Apple Pen"

let firstPart = "Pen Pineapple";
let secondPart = "Apple Pen";

// Concatenate the strings with a space in between
let combined = firstPart + " " + secondPart;

console.log(combined); // Displays "Pen Pineapple Apple Pen"

You got Pen Pineapple Apple Pen!

Notice that we had to add a space " " in the middle. The computer is extremely literal; it only combines exactly what you give it. Without that space, the result would have been "Pen PineappleApple Pen".

2. Inspecting: "Is the Username Too Long?"

Sometimes you don't need to change the text, but you need to get information about it. The most common piece of information you'll need is its length.

This is useful for checking things like, "Is this username less than 15 characters?" or "Will this menu item name fit on the display?"

# In Python, we use the len() function to get the length of a string.
menu_item = "Extra Cheesy Supreme Pizza"
item_length = len(menu_item)

print("Menu Item:", menu_item)
print("Character Count:", item_length)

# Now we can use this information in a decision!
if item_length > 20:
  print("Warning: This name might be too long for the menu board!")

// In JavaScript, we use the .length property to get the length of a string.
let menuItem = "Extra Cheesy Supreme Pizza";
let itemLength = menuItem.length;

console.log("Menu Item:", menuItem);
console.log("Character Count:", itemLength);

// Now we can use this information in a decision!
if (itemLength > 20) {
  console.log("Warning: This name might be too long for the menu board!");
}

3. Styling: "Shouting the Daily Special"

Often, you'll need to change the case of a string for formatting purposes. For example, you might want to display a heading in all capital letters or normalize user input by converting it all to lowercase.

Think of it like deciding how to write something on a menu board. Do you want to SHOUT IT, or write it in normal case?

daily_special = "Classic Burger with Fries"

# To make a big headline for the menu board, we use .upper()
shouted_special = daily_special.upper()
print(shouted_special) # Displays: CLASSIC BURGER WITH FRIES

# To store it in a database consistently, we might use .lower()
normalized_special = daily_special.lower()
print(normalized_special) # Displays: classic burger with fries

let dailySpecial = "Classic Burger with Fries";

// To make a big headline for the menu board, we use .toUpperCase()
let shoutedSpecial = dailySpecial.toUpperCase();
console.log(shoutedSpecial); // Displays: CLASSIC BURGER WITH FRIES

// To store it in a database consistently, we might use .toLowerCase()
let normalizedSpecial = dailySpecial.toLowerCase();
console.log(normalizedSpecial); // Displays: classic burger with fries

These three operations—combining, checking length, and changing case—are the essential tools in your text-handling toolkit. You'll use them constantly to build dynamic, readable, and user-friendly programs.

Mini-Exercise 💡

1. Create two string variables, one for your first name and one for your last name.
2. Combine them to create your full name, and store it in a new variable. Make sure to include a space between the names!
3. Print your full name to the screen.
4. Print the length of your full name.
5. Print your full name in all uppercase letters.