A string is a sequence of characters used to represent text in programming. Strings are one of the most commonly used data types in any programming language and are fundamental for working with text-based data, such as user input, file handling, and communication between systems. In most languages, strings are enclosed in quotation marks (either single ' or double "), and can include letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces.

Definition: A string is a sequence of characters used to represent text. It can include letters, numbers, and other symbols.

Strings are often manipulated using built-in functions like concatenation, substring extraction, and length calculation. For instance, you might concatenate two strings to form a sentence or extract a substring to get a specific portion of the text. While many programming languages treat strings as a sequence of characters, some languages (like C) represent strings as arrays of characters, while others (like Python) provide high-level string manipulation functions that abstract away these details.

greeting = "Hello, World!"

In addition to basic operations, strings are frequently used for formatting and parsing data. For example, strings are often used to display information in user interfaces, parse user input, or format outputs such as currency or date/time values. Efficient string handling is crucial for building applications that deal with a large volume of textual data, such as chatbots, document processing systems, and search engines.