Week 11 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Computer Science Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 11 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 72–86 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (18–21 min total)

① Calling string methods and keeping what they hand back

Chapter 11, Section “Ask a string to do work: methods hand back new values” · Session 1, Segment 1, “String methods” · Remember: a string method hands back a new string, so store it with an assignment or the change is lost.

String methods in Python are easy! — Bro Code — a quick tour of len, find, capitalize, upper, lower, isdigit, isalpha, count, and replace on a typed name and phone number, followed by a short exercise; notice that each method that builds a new string is kept with an assignment such as name = name.upper(), while find and count hand back numbers stored in a separate name. Use it while working through the Week-11 module overview. (video, 12 min) (captions: automatic)
31 ESSENTIAL Python String Methods — Patrick Loeber — a fast, chaptered catalogue; watch strip, replace, split, join, upper and lower, count, find, and startswith, and skip item 8, which uses regular expressions, a tool for a later course. (video, 11 min) (captions: automatic)
Demo: Strings, Python for Beginners 10 of 44 — Microsoft Developer — a short live-coding demo of working with strings in code; before each line runs, say what it will print and whether the original string has changed. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)
Programming Terms: Mutable vs Immutable — Corey Schafer — a code-along explanation of mutable and immutable objects; as you watch, connect it to why a string method can never change the string it is called on. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)

② Taking a line apart and putting it back together

Chapter 11, Section “Take a line apart and rebuild it: split and join” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Split and join” · Remember: split turns one string into a list of pieces, and join turns a list of strings back into one string.

Python - The split() and join() methods - String Tutorial with Example — Appficial — a five-minute example that breaks a string into pieces at a separator and joins the pieces back; predict each list before it appears. This builds on Week 9's work with lists, since split hands you one. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
An Introduction to String Functions in Python 3 — DigitalOcean — a plain-text tutorial; read Making Strings Upper and Lower Case and the section on join(), split(), and replace(), and skim the Boolean Methods section, which goes beyond this week. (reading, 10–15 min)
The reading-log rebuild, step by step — Python Tutor — the chapter's rebuild program loaded in the visualizer; click Next and watch the list of four pieces change at position 2 while the original line never changes. (reading, 5–8 min)

③ Cleaning text before you compare it

Chapter 11, Section “Build small text algorithms from the pieces” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Small text algorithms” · Remember: strip the ends and lower the letters before you compare typed text, and split to count words.

Python Intro Ep 09, String Parsing with strip() and split() — Russell Lewis — a classroom-paced episode on taking typed input, trimming it, and splitting it into words; pause at each step and say what the string or list now holds. (video, 8 min) (captions: creator)
String Methods, Python concept guide — Exercism — a one-page concept guide; read the parts on strip and replace, and skip removeprefix, removesuffix, and the notes on locales, which go beyond this week. (reading, 5–8 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

String Methods, The Python Standard Library, Built-in Types — Python Software Foundation — the official list of every string method, the course's free reference for every language fact; read the entries for split, join, strip, find, replace, count, and startswith, and skip the many others. (reading, 5–8 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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