How can I get last 4 characters of a string in Python?

Getting the last 4 characters of a string is a common task in Python. You can achieve this using string slicing with negative indices, which count from the end of the string.

Using Negative Slicing

The slice operator [-4:] starts from the 4th character from the end and goes to the end of the string ?

text = "Thanks. I am fine"
last_four = text[-4:]
print(last_four)

fine

Examples with Different Strings

Here are more examples showing how negative slicing works ?

# Different string examples
word1 = "Python"
word2 = "Programming"
word3 = "Hello World"

print("Last 4 chars of 'Python':", word1[-4:])
print("Last 4 chars of 'Programming':", word2[-4:])
print("Last 4 chars of 'Hello World':", word3[-4:])

Last 4 chars of 'Python': thon
Last 4 chars of 'Programming': ming
Last 4 chars of 'Hello World': orld

Handling Short Strings

When the string has fewer than 4 characters, slicing returns the entire string ?

short_text = "Hi"
result = short_text[-4:]
print(f"'{short_text}' last 4 chars: '{result}'")

# Empty string case
empty = ""
result_empty = empty[-4:]
print(f"Empty string last 4 chars: '{result_empty}'")

'Hi' last 4 chars: 'Hi'
Empty string last 4 chars: ''

Alternative Method Using len()

You can also use len() to calculate the starting position ?

text = "Thanks. I am fine"
start_pos = len(text) - 4
last_four = text[start_pos:]
print(last_four)

fine

Conclusion

Use string[-4:] to get the last 4 characters efficiently. This method handles short strings gracefully and is the most Pythonic approach for extracting characters from the end of a string.