How to print characters from a string starting from 3rd to 5th in Python?

Python strings use indexing to access individual characters, starting from index 0. To extract characters from the 3rd to 5th position, we can use string slicing with different approaches.

String Indexing Basics

In Python, string indexing starts from 0. For example, the string "Coding" has indices 0,1,2,3,4,5 for characters C,o,d,i,n,g respectively.

text = "Coding"
print(f"Length: {len(text)}")
print(f"First character (index 0): {text[0]}")
print(f"Third character (index 2): {text[2]}")

Length: 6
First character (index 0): C
Third character (index 2): d

Method 1: Using String Slicing

String slicing uses the syntax string[start:end] where start is inclusive and end is exclusive ?

# Extract 3rd to 5th characters (indices 2 to 4)
text = "TutorialsPoint"
result = text[2:5]
print(f"Original string: {text}")
print(f"Characters 3rd to 5th: {result}")

Original string: TutorialsPoint
Characters 3rd to 5th: tor

Method 2: Using Negative Indexing

Negative indexing starts from -1 (last character) and counts backward ?

text = "Tutorials"
# Calculate negative indices for 3rd to 5th positions
result = text[-7:-4]  # -7 is 3rd position, -4 excludes 6th position
print(f"Original string: {text}")
print(f"Using negative indexing: {result}")

Original string: Tutorials
Using negative indexing: tor

Method 3: Using Conditional Check

Add validation to handle strings shorter than 5 characters ?

def extract_3rd_to_5th(text):
    if len(text) >= 5:
        return text[2:5]
    else:
        return "String too short"

# Test with different strings
strings = ["TutorialsPoint", "Code", "Programming"]
for s in strings:
    result = extract_3rd_to_5th(s)
    print(f"'{s}' ? '{result}'")

'TutorialsPoint' ? 'tor'
'Code' ? 'String too short'
'Programming' ? 'ogr'

Comparison of Methods

Conclusion

Use basic string slicing [2:5] for extracting 3rd to 5th characters. Add length validation when working with variable-length strings to avoid index errors.