Iterate over characters of a string in Python

In this article, we will learn how to iterate over the characters of a string in Python. There are several methods to do this, but we will focus on the most efficient one. The simplest way is to use a loop. Let’s explore this approach.

Using for loop

The simplest way to iterate over the characters in a string is by using a for loop. This method is efficient and easy to understand.

s = "hello"

for char in s:
    print(char)

h
e
l
l
o

Explanation: for char in s: This line loops through the string s, with char representing each character in s one by one.

Using enumerate for Index Access

If we need both the character and its index then enumerate() is a great choice. It returns both values in each iteration.

s = "hello"

for i, char in enumerate(s):
    print(f"Index {i}: {char}")

Index 0: h
Index 1: e
Index 2: l
Index 3: l
Index 4: o

Explanation:

• enumerate(s) provides both the index i and the character char.
• The print function uses a formatted string, where the f before the string allows us to include variables directly within it using curly braces {}.