Python Checking a string's first and last character

Question

can anyone please explain what is wrong with this code?

str1='"xxx"'
print str1
if str1[:1].startswith('"'):
    if str1[:-1].endswith('"'):
        print "hi"
    else:
        print "condition fails"
else:
    print "bye"   

The output I got is:

Condition fails

but I expected it to print hi instead.

Answer 1

You should either use

if str1[0] == '"' and str1[-1] == '"'

or

if str1.startswith('"') and str1.endswith('"')

but not slice and check startswith/endswith together, otherwise you'll slice off what you're looking for...

Answer 2

You are testing against the string minus the last character:

>>> '"xxx"'[:-1]
'"xxx'

Note how the last character, the ", is not part of the output of the slice.

I think you wanted just to test against the last character; use [-1:] to slice for just the last element.

However, there is no need to slice here; just use str.startswith() and str.endswith() directly.

Answer 3

When you set a string variable, it doesn't save quotes of it, they are a part of its definition. so you don't need to use :1