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First and last 2 characters

EasyString Programs · 1 of 106

Write a Python program to build a string from the first 2 and the last 2 characters of a string. If the string is shorter than 2 characters, return an empty string.

Input

"Sqatools", "Py", "S"

Output

'Sqatools' -> 'Sqls'
'Py' -> 'PyPy'
'S' -> ''

Approach

Check the length first; then join two slices.

Solution

Python

def ends(text):    if len(text) < 2:        return ""    return text[:2] + text[-2:] for t in ["Sqatools", "Py", "S"]:    print(repr(t), "->", repr(ends(t)))

Output

'Sqatools' -> 'Sqls'
'Py' -> 'PyPy'
'S' -> ''

Line by line

Lines 2-3

Strings shorter than 2 characters return an empty string, as the task asks.

Line 4

text[:2] is the first two characters and text[-2:] the last two.

Note

For “Py” the two slices overlap, so the result is “PyPy”.

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Strings & Methods lesson → String Formatting & f-strings lesson →

More string programs

#2EasyLength of the longest string in a list #3EasyFour copies of the last two characters #4EasyReverse a string if its length is a multiple of 4 #5EasyCount occurrences of a substring

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