Output first 100 characters in a string

String formatting using % is a great way to handle this. Here are some examples.

The formatting code '%s' converts '12345' to a string, but it's already a string.

>>> '%s' % '12345'

'12345'

'%.3s' specifies to use only the first three characters.

>>> '%.3s' % '12345'

'123'

'%.7s' says to use the first seven characters, but there are only five. No problem.

>>> '%.7s' % '12345'

'12345'

'%7s' uses up to seven characters, filling missing characters with spaces on the left.

>>> '%7s' % '12345'

'  12345'

'%-7s' is the same thing, except filling missing characters on the right.

>>> '%-7s' % '12345'

'12345  '

'%5.3' says use the first three characters, but fill it with spaces on the left to total five characters.

>>> '%5.3s' % '12345'

'  123'

Same thing except filling on the right.

>>> '%-5.3s' % '12345'

'123  '

Can handle multiple arguments too!

>>> 'do u no %-4.3sda%3.2s wae' % ('12345', 6789)

'do u no 123 da 67 wae'

If you require even more flexibility, str.format() is available too. Here is documentation for both.

Most of previous examples will raise an exception in case your string is not long enough.

Another approach is to use 'yourstring'.ljust(100)[:100].strip().

This will give you first 100 chars. You might get a shorter string in case your string last chars are spaces.

[start:stop:step]

So If you want to take only 100 first character, use your_string[0:100] or your_string[:100] If you want to take only the character at even position, use your_string[::2] The "default values" for start is 0, for stop - len of string, and for step - 1. So when you don't provide one of its and put ':', it'll use it default value.