Why not just iterate through the string?
a_string="abcd"
for letter in a_string:
print letter
returns
a
b
c
d
So, in pseudo-ish code, I would do this:
user_string = raw_input()
list_of_output = []
for letter in user_string:
list_of_output.append(morse_code_ify(letter))
output_string = "".join(list_of_output)
Note: the morse_code_ify function is pseudo-code.
You definitely want to make a list of the characters you want to output rather than just concatenating on them on the end of some string. As stated above, it's O(n^2): bad. Just append them onto a list, and then use "".join(the_list).
As a side note: why are you removing the spaces? Why not just have morse_code_ify(" ") return a "\n"?
Top answer 1 of 9
21
Why not just iterate through the string?
a_string="abcd"
for letter in a_string:
print letter
returns
a
b
c
d
So, in pseudo-ish code, I would do this:
user_string = raw_input()
list_of_output = []
for letter in user_string:
list_of_output.append(morse_code_ify(letter))
output_string = "".join(list_of_output)
Note: the morse_code_ify function is pseudo-code.
You definitely want to make a list of the characters you want to output rather than just concatenating on them on the end of some string. As stated above, it's O(n^2): bad. Just append them onto a list, and then use "".join(the_list).
As a side note: why are you removing the spaces? Why not just have morse_code_ify(" ") return a "\n"?
2 of 9
4
A couple of things for ya:
The loading would be "better" like this:
with file('morsecodes.txt', 'rt') as f:
for line in f:
line = line.strip()
if len(line) > 0:
# do your stuff to parse the file
That way you don't need to close, and you don't need to manually load each line, etc., etc.
for letter in userInput:
if ValidateLetter(letter): # you need to define this
code = GetMorseCode(letter) # from my other answer
# do whatever you want
W3Schools
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Python Strings
To check if a certain phrase or character is present in a string, we can use the keyword in. ... txt = "The best things in life are free!" if "free" in txt: print("Yes, 'free' is present.") Try it Yourself » · Learn more about If statements in our Python If...Else chapter.
Videos
Tu-delft-dcc
tu-delft-dcc.github.io › Intro-to-Python-for-GIS › Instructor_notes › Day_1 › lesson_notes › B2_Vars_Types.html
Use an index to get a single character from a string. — Python essentials for GIS learners
thing[number:some-negative-number] returns a slice from number to some-negative-number values from the end of thing · If a part of the slice is out of range, the operation does not fail. atom_name[0:15] gives the same result as atom_name[0:]. {: .solution} {: .challenge} Guide to programing with Python for the Digital Humanities Functions may only work for certain (combinations of) arguments.
Python
mail.python.org › pipermail › tutor › 2006-August › 048830.html
[Tutor] How do I make Python read a string character by character?
September 1, 2013 - On 8/24/06, Nathan Pinno <falcon3166 at hotmail.com> wrote: > How do I make Python read a string character by character? >>> str = 'string' >>> for i in range(0, len(str)): ... print str[i] ... s t r i n g just take care about the indentation.
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python-program-to-read-character-by-character-from-a-file
Python program to read character by character from a file - GeeksforGeeks
September 6, 2024 - Open a file in read mode that contains a string then use an Infinite while loop to read each character from the file the loop will break if no character is left in the file to read then Display each word of length 5 from each line in the text file.
O'Reilly
oreilly.com › library › view › python-cookbook › 0596001673 › ch03s02.html
Processing a String One Character at a Time - Python Cookbook [Book]
July 19, 2002 - This is similar to the for loop, but it produces a list of results of the function do_something_with called with each character in the string as its argument. In Python, characters are just strings of length one. You can loop over a string to access each of its characters, one by one.
Authors Alex MartelliDavid Ascher
Published 2002
Pages 608
Python.org
discuss.python.org › python help
How can I read a single character at a time? - Python Help - Discussions on Python.org
June 24, 2024 - How can I read just one character at a time
Educative
educative.io › answers › how-to-get-the-characters-in-a-string-in-python
How to get the character(s) in a string in Python
You can use a negative index starting from the end of a string to get the character of a string, as shown below. ... In the example below, you can use the same syntax to extract a few characters instead of just one.
Google
developers.google.com › google for education › python › python strings
Python Strings | Python Education | Google for Developers
Characters in a string can be accessed using the standard [ ] syntax, and like Java and C++, Python uses zero-based indexing, so if s is 'hello' s[1] is 'e'. If the index is out of bounds for the string, Python raises an error.
Real Python
realpython.com › python-strings
Strings and Character Data in Python – Real Python
December 22, 2024 - In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use Python's rich set of operators and functions for working with strings. You'll cover the basics of creating strings using literals and the str() function, applying string methods, using operators and built-in functions with strings, and more!
GitConnected
levelup.gitconnected.com › introduction-to-strings-in-python-18caf6e02152
Introduction to Strings in Python | by Rany ElHousieny | Level Up Coding
October 31, 2025 - You can access individual characters in a string by using indexing. In Python, indexing starts from 0, so the first character of a string is at index 0, the second character is at index 1, and so on.
CodeBasics
code-basics.com › programming › python course › extracting characters from a string
Extracting characters from a string | Python | CodeBasics
[Python] — Extracting characters from a string — Sometimes, you have to get a single character from a string. For example, if a site knows users' first and last names, and at some point you want it to output this inf...
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › python-extract-only-characters-from-given-string
Python - Extract only characters from given string - GeeksforGeeks
July 11, 2025 - The re.sub function replaces all non-alphabetic characters with an empty string (''), effectively extracting only the letters from the input string.
Bobby Hadz
bobbyhadz.com › blog › python-read-file-character-by-character
How to Read a file character by character in Python | bobbyhadz
April 10, 2024 - On each iteration of the while loop, we add the current character to a list. The list.append() method adds an item to the end of the list. Alternatively, you can use a for loop. ... Open the file in reading mode.
Quora
quora.com › How-do-you-access-a-range-of-characters-from-a-string-in-Python
How to access a range of characters from a string in Python - Quora
Answer (1 of 3): Python – Extract range characters from String Given a String, extract characters only which lie between given letters. > Input : test_str = ‘geekforgeeks is best’, strt, end = “g”, “s” Output : gkorgksiss Explanation : All characters after g and before s are retained.
DigitalOcean
digitalocean.com › community › tutorials › how-to-index-and-slice-strings-in-python-3
How To Index and Slice Strings in Python | DigitalOcean
September 29, 2025 - The slicing method [::-1] is generally preferred because it’s concise, readable, and efficient. In this tutorial, we’ve explored the fundamental concepts of indexing and slicing strings in Python 3, which are crucial for manipulating text data. We learned that strings, like lists and tuples, are sequence-based data types, allowing us to access their individual characters and portions using these powerful techniques. ... Indexing: How to retrieve a single character from a string using its numerical position (index), both from the beginning (positive indices starting at 0) and from the end (negative indices starting at -1).
Note.nkmk.me
note.nkmk.me › home › python
Extract a Substring from a String in Python (Position, Regex) | note.nkmk.me
April 29, 2025 - If you want to extract a substring from the contents of a text file, first read the file as a string. Read, write, and create files in Python (with and open()) You can get a character at a specific position by specifying its index in []. Indexes start at 0 (zero-based indexing).
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › iterate-over-characters-of-a-string-in-python
Iterate over characters of a string in Python - GeeksforGeeks
July 11, 2025 - If we need both the character and its index then enumerate() is a great choice. It returns both values in each iteration. ... The print function uses a formatted string, where the f before the string allows us to include variables directly within ...
Stanford CS
cs.stanford.edu › people › nick › py › python-string.html
Python Strings
These convenient functions return True/False depending on what appears at one end of a string. These are convenient when you need to check for something at an end, e.g. if a filename ends with '.html'. Style aside: a good example of a well-named function, making the code where it is called very readable. ... >>> 'Python'.startswith('Py') True >>> 'Python'.startswith('Px') False >>> 'resume.html'.endswith('.html') True
PyPI
pypi.org › project › readchar
readchar · PyPI
Born as a python-inquirer requirement. ... Or download the source code from PyPi. ... from readchar import readkey, key while True: k = readkey() if k == "a": # do stuff if k == key.DOWN: # do stuff if k == key.ENTER: break ... Reads one character from stdin, returning it as a string with length 1.
» pip install readchar