Python String | startswith method
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Python's str.startswith(~) method returns a boolean indicating whether a string starts with the specified prefix.
Parameters
1. prefix | string
The prefix to check for in the source string.
2. start | int | optional
The index of the source string to start search (inclusive). By default, start=0.
3. end | int | optional
The index of the source string to stop search (exclusive). By default, end= start + len(prefix).
Return value
A single boolean indicating whether the source string starts with the specified prefix.
Examples
Basic usage
To check whether source string 'abc def' starts with prefix 'ab':
x = 'abc def'x.startswith('ab')
True
Start parameter
To check whether source string 'abc def' starts with prefix 'ab', starting at index position 1:
y = 'abc def'y.startswith('ab', 1)
False
The search starts at index position 1 which is at 'b'. As 'bc' does not match with the provided prefix of 'ab', False is returned.
End parameter
To check whether source string 'abc def' starts with prefix 'abc', starting at index position 0 (inclusive) and ending at index position 2 (exclusive):
z = "abc def"z.startswith("abc", 0, 2)
False
The start position for the search is index position 0 ('a') and the search ends before index position 2 ('c'). Therefore we are checking whether string 'ab' starts with prefix 'abc' which returns False.
