Strings (Python)

This module practices splitting text, normalizing characters, and basic text analysis.

Learning Metadata

• Difficulty: Beginner.
• Estimated Time: 20-35 minutes.
• Prerequisites: 01-foundations/types-and-io, 01-foundations/control-flow.
• Cross-Language Lens: Compare immutable string handling, indexing rules, and tokenization helpers in each language.

Learning Outcomes

• FND-STR-01: Normalize, inspect, and transform textual data.
• FND-STR-02: Handle empty input and character boundaries safely.

Quick Run

Run from the repository root:

python scripts/automation.py run-module --module-path languages/python/01-foundations/strings

Topics Covered

• Tokenizing text into words.
• Character filtering and normalization.
• Case-insensitive comparisons.
• Simple palindrome checks on sanitized text.

Common Pitfalls

• Counting words without removing extra spaces.
• Comparing palindromes before removing punctuation and case differences.
• Failing to handle inputs without alphabetic characters.

Cross-Language Notes

• In Python, read this module through the native focus ?Strings?; the shared folder name remains stable for side-by-side navigation.
• Use dynamic values, collection protocols, and context managers to demonstrate how to normalize, inspect, and transform textual data.
• Compare observable behavior with the other tracks when learning to handle empty input and character boundaries safely; equivalent evidence matters more than identical syntax.

Exercise Focus

• exercises/01.py: count words in an input line using robust whitespace handling.
• exercises/02.py: normalize input and detect whether it is a palindrome.

Exercise Specs

1. exercises/01.py

• Input: single line of text.
• Output: word count.
• Edge cases: empty or blank line; multiple spaces between words.

2. exercises/02.py

• Input: single line that may contain spaces or punctuation.
• Output: Palindrome or Not palindrome style result.
• Edge cases: input with no letters; mixed upper/lower case.

Check Your Work

Run from the repository root after implementing a starter:

python scripts/automation.py check-exercise --language python --level 01-foundations --module strings --exercise 01

Change --exercise 01 to --exercise 02 for the second task. Consult exercises/solutions/ only after making a complete attempt.

Checkpoint

• I can explain the core ideas of this module.
• I can run and modify example/main.py.
• I completed exercises/01.py.
• I completed exercises/02.py.
• I validated at least one edge case for each exercise.

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