Concepts: String processing

Short essays on the ideas behind Python's string model — the pieces you read once and keep coming back to when something surprises you. The "ah, that's why" layer beneath the syntax.

Essays in this section

• Why strings are immutable — what immutability buys you, what it costs, and how to think about "modifying" a string.
• Understanding Unicode and encodings — code points versus bytes, UTF-8 versus the alternatives, and the encoding errors you'll meet sooner or later.