String Contains a Substring in Python

Case sensitive

The simplest way to check whether there is a substring in a string is by using the in operator.

if "text" in "Just a simple text.":
    print(True)
else:
    print(False)

output

True

It returns True because “text” is contained in the “Just a simple text” string. When you change the case in the text, it will return False. Look at these examples.

if "Text" in "Just a simple text.":
    print(True)
else:
    print(False)

and

if "text" in "Just a simple Text.":
    print(True)
else:
    print(False)

They both return False because there are different case sizes.

Ignore case

If you want to create a case-insensitive script, you can use the lower function. It will cast all characters in a string to lowercase.

my_string = "Just a simple text."

if my_substring.lower() in my_string.lower():
    print(True)
else:
    print(False)

The output this time is True.

Starts with

With the startswith function, you can check whether the string starts with the chosen substring. This code is case-sensitive.

my_string = "this is a text"

if my_string.startswith("this"):
    print(True)
else:
    print(False)

This code returns True.

my_string = " this is a text"

if my_string.startswith("this"):
    print(True)
else:
    print(False)

This code returns False if there is a single character before the substring – even space.

Ends with

This function is similar to the endswith function. It returns True each time there is a substring at the end of the string.

my_string = 'This is a text'

if my_string.endswith("text"):
    print(True)
else:
    print(False)

Count how many times a substring is present in a string

my_string1 = "is a text in a text"
my_string2 = "Just a normal string"

print(my_string1.count("text"))
print(my_string2.count("text"))

The script returns the following output.

2
0

Get a substring position

In order to check the position of the string, use the index function.

my_string = "This is a text"
print(my_string.index("is"))