string fundamentals so farwe've studied numbers and explored python' dynamic typing model the next major type on our in-depth core object tour is the python string--an ordered collection of characters used to store and represent textand bytes-based information we looked briefly at strings in herewe will revisit them in more depthfilling in some of the details we skipped earlier this scope before we get startedi also want to clarify what we won' be covering here briefly previewed unicode strings and files--tools for dealing with non-ascii text unicode is key tool for some programmersespecially those who work in the internet domain it can pop upfor examplein web pagesemail content and headersftp transfersgui apisdirectory toolsand htmlxml and json text at the same timeunicode can be heavy topic for programmers just starting outand many (or mostof the python programmers meet today still do their jobs in blissful ignorance of the entire topic in light of thatthis book relegates most of the unicode story to of its advanced topics part as optional readingand focuses on string basics here that isthis tells only part of the string story in python--the part that most scripts use and most programmers need to know it explores the fundamental str string typewhich handles ascii textand works the same regardless of which version of python you use despite this intentionally limited scopebecause str also handles unicode in python xand the separate unicode type works almost identically to str in xeverything we learn here will apply directly to unicode processing too unicodethe short story for readers who do care about unicodei' like to also provide quick summary of its impacts and pointers for further study from formal perspectiveascii is simple