note for nowyou can think of the word class as synonym for data typealthough it actually refers to something more specific you'll see just what class is in type(also works for values that have been assigned to variablephrase "helloworldtype(phrasestrings have three important properties strings contain individual letters or symbols called characters strings have lengthdefined as the number of characters the string contains characters in string appear in sequencewhich means that each character has numbered position in the string let' take closer look at how strings are created string literals as you've already seenyou can create string by surrounding some text with quotation marksstring 'helloworldstring " you can use either single quotes (string or double quotes (string to create string as long as you use the same type at the beginning and end of the string whenever you create string by surrounding text with quotation marksthe string is called string literal the name indicates that the string is literally written out in your code all the strings you've seen thus far are string literals