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Python Strings Tutorial: Slicing, f-strings and String Methods with Examples

P3.2 Python String Indexing and Slicing Explained

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Why. Codes often hide information in fixed places. For example, the first 3 letters of "LON-2026-0042" are the city. Slicing pulls them out.

What. Each character has a position number called an index. Counting starts at 0. Negative numbers count from the end.

  • text[0] — first character
  • text[-1] — last character
  • text[0:3] — characters 0, 1, 2 (the end number is not included)
  • text[4:] — from position 4 to the end
Character L O N - 2 0 2 6
Index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

How to read this table: the top row is each character of "LON-2026"; the bottom row is its index.

How.

Slice a part of text

  1. Write the text or variable.
  2. Add square brackets.
  3. Put start:end inside.
  4. Remember the end position is left out.

Worked example A — First and last character.

Step 1 — What we do. We take the first and last letter of a ticket ID.

Step 2 — Type and run this code.

ticket = "LON-2026-0042"
print(ticket[0])
print(ticket[-1])

Step 3 — Output you should see.

L
2

Step 4 — What it means. Index 0 is the first character, -1 the last. No counting from the end needed.

Worked example B — Cut the city code and the year.

Step 1 — What we do. The same ticket. We slice the city and the year.

Step 2 — Type and run this code.

ticket = "LON-2026-0042"
print(ticket[0:3])
print(ticket[4:8])

Step 3 — Output you should see.

LON
2026

Step 4 — What it means. [0:3] gives positions 0–2 = "LON". [4:8] gives positions 4–7 = "2026".

Worked example C — Take the end part.

Step 1 — What we do. We need only the running number at the end.

Step 2 — Type and run this code.

ticket = "LON-2026-0042"
print(ticket[-4:])
print(int(ticket[-4:]))

Step 3 — Output you should see.

0042
42

Step 4 — What it means. [-4:] means the last 4 characters. int() turns "0042" into the number 42.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Slicing works only when every code has the same shape. If lengths change, use split() instead (next section).