Using the count in Python Add a Character in the result?

Question

Can someone explain me the following :-

Suppose i have this String variable

pcalpha = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'

Writing this piece of code print(len(pcalpha)) will result in an output of an int which is equal to 26 which from my understanding means that the string has 26 characters in it.

Writing this other piece of code print(pcalpha.count("")) shall also give the same result according to the logic am following, but it is not. Can someone tell me why is it showing 27?

Related: Replacing the empty strings in a string

wim
– wim

2018-10-30 18:48:20 +00:00
Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 18:48 — wim
– wim, Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 18:48

Dani Mesejo · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-30 18:56:00Z

0

The intuition is that there is a "" after each letter and one before the first letter. So if you have 26 letters, that means you have 26 "" plus the one at the beginning 26 + 1 = 27. For an example, let's replace "" by "-":

pcalpha = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
print(pcalpha.replace("", "-"))

Output

-a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o-p-q-r-s-t-u-v-w-x-y-z-

Further

For the implementation details, as mentioned by @RandomDavis, see this.
Replacing the empty strings in a string

edited Oct 30, 2018 at 18:56

answered Oct 30, 2018 at 18:38

Dani Mesejo

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5 Comments

Random Davis Over a year ago

To see why it returns 27 instead of 26, you can see the implementation here: github.com/python/cpython/blob/…

SaifYsn Over a year ago

Yeah sure, i will refer to that as soon as i advance in the subject, currently i can barely understand anything.

SaifYsn Over a year ago

If i may ask, what does the "" actually mean in python?

Dani Mesejo Over a year ago

@SaifYsn It means the empty string

Acccumulation Over a year ago

There is an argument that there are an infinite number of instances of the empty string.

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