Is there a way to compare the first character of a string to the last character without knowing the amount of characters in it?

Question

Is there a way to compare the first character of a string to the last character without knowing the amount of characters in it? (Python)

Answer 1

mystr[0] == mystr[-1]

string slice techique

Answer 2

The index of the first character is 0. The len() function can give you the length of a string, but since indices start at 0, the maximum index (last character) is 1 less than the length. The expression:

myStr[0] == myStr[len(myStr) - 1]

evaluates to true if the first and last character are the same and false if they are not.

EDIT: You can also use myStr[-1] to get the final character. I’ve never really liked that approach, but it’s arguably more efficient and more legible; negative indices count from the end. The equivalent expression to the one above is:

myStr[0] == myStr[-1]

Answer 3

Rik Wittkopp ,

it's indexing, not slicing:

("Dog","Cat")[1] -> Cat

there might be a misunderstanding by calling this a slice.

this is what we understand as:
-> indexing:
indexing is used to obtain an individual element

-> slicing:
slicing is used to obtain a sequence of elements

Answer 4

Lothar
Thanks for that.

I recently had a misunderstanding with rotation vs combination.

Is there a trend I wonder 🤪😳
🤣👍