2. String assignment

The first step in using strings is to get the program to recognise which variables are meant to be strings.

In Python, assignment is done using the "=" operator, not the "?" operator you might have been using in pseudocode.

Strings are assigned by putting the characters you want in the string, inbetween a pair of speech marks, like this:

MyLargeString = "Hello this is a string"

Strings can also have numbers inside of them. Once inside a string, the numbers are handled in the same way as any other set of characters.

You cannot carry out any calculations on numbers stored in a string without first converting them into a different data type, such as integer or floating point number. This is called 'casting'

A telephone number would always be stored as string data as it is very unlikely that any mathematical operations would be performed on it:

MyTelephoneNumber = "01234 567890"

Strings can be input by the user and stored in a string variable.

Python uses the "input" keyword, which works very similarly to the USERINPUT keyword used in pseudocode.

For example:-

                  YourName = input('Please enter your first name')

This displays a prompt on the screen asking the user to enter a string. When they do, it is stored as the YourName variable.