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What Python string slicing does
A Python string is an immutable sequence of Unicode code points. Indexing selects one code point, returned as a string of length one; Python does not have a separate character type. Slicing selects a sequence of positions and returns a new string.
For example, the official Python tutorial shows slices of word = "Python":
word = "Python"
word[0:2] # "Py"
word[2:5] # "tho"
The start is included; the stop is excluded. Think of the indices as boundaries between code points: the slice from boundary 0 to boundary 2 contains the items between them, at positions 0 and 1. This endpoint rule also lets adjacent slices join back together: text[:i] + text[i:] == text.
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How to use start, stop, and step
Choose a bounded range
In text[start:stop], provide the first position to include and the boundary where selection ends. With word = "Python", word[0:2] is "Py", not "Pyt", because position 2 is the excluded stop.
Omit a boundary
For the usual positive step, an omitted start begins at the start of the string and an omitted stop continues to the end:
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word[:2] # "Py"
word[4:] # "on"
word[:] # "Python"
Count from the end
Negative indices count from the right. Position -1 is the final code point, -2 is the one before it, and so on. For example, word[-2:] returns "on". Since -0 is the same value as 0, use -1, not -0, for the last position.
Skip positions or traverse backward
The optional third value is the step: text[start:stop:step]. A positive step moves forward; a negative step moves backward. The common full-string reversal is:
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word[::-1] # "nohtyP"
A step of zero is invalid. Omitted bounds behave differently with a negative step than with a positive one, so use [::-1] when the goal is to traverse the whole string backward.
What happens when bounds are outside the string?
Slicing adjusts bounds that extend beyond the string instead of raising an error. A positive-step slice whose start is at or beyond its stop is empty. This forgiving behavior applies to slices, not ordinary indexing: accessing a nonexistent single position, such as word[99], raises IndexError. The Python built-in types reference documents these sequence-slicing rules.
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Can slicing change a string?
No. Strings are immutable, so a slice cannot edit the original string in place. To replace a range, concatenate the part before it, the replacement, and the part after it:
text = "Python"
start = 1
stop = 3
replacement = "XX"
changed = text[:start] + replacement + text[stop:]
# changed is "PXXhon"; text remains "Python"
If you need to change individual elements in place, use a mutable sequence such as a list instead. The new-string behavior follows from Python’s str type being immutable, as described in the built-in types reference.
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Unicode detail: a slice can split a displayed character
String indices and slices work on Unicode code points, not necessarily on what a reader sees as one displayed character. Some visible characters consist of multiple code points, such as a base letter followed by a combining mark or an emoji sequence. A slice can split such a sequence. If an operation must preserve user-perceived characters as units, code-point slicing alone is not enough.
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