> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://eduapps.gitbook.io/python-intro/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://eduapps.gitbook.io/python-intro/3.-text-in-python.md).

# 3. Text in Python

\
Data does not have to be numbers. Text is also a useful data type, which is called **string** Unlike integer and float data types, strings are enclosed in single or double quotation marks (`' '` or `" "`).

```python
"Hello"
```

You can perform operation on strings:

```python
"Hello" + " mary"
>> Hello mary

string1 = "Hello"
string2 = " Eric"
string1 + string2
>> Hello Eric
```

{% hint style="info" %}
Note that blank space matters in strings. \
e.g.`"hello"` and `" hello"`are two different string values. 
{% endhint %}

You can find out the length of a string (e.g. how many letters) as follow:

```python
len('hello')
>> 5

string2 = " Eric"
len('Hello'+string2)
>> 10
```

\
Note that `len()` is a **function**. A function does some useful work on the an input (content inside the bracket; in this case, the string "`hello"`) and outputs something (e.g. an integer showing the length of the string)