Including \n in a string in python

Question

How do i escape \n in a string in python.

How do i write out to stdin in python this string "abc\ndef" as one single input

Sys.stdout.write("abc\ndef")

current output

import sys

>>> sys.stdout.write("abc\ndef")
abc
def

I would like it to be abc\ndef

@m02ph3u5, if that's the answer, please post it as an answer :-) — Kevin, Sep 01 '15 at 12:09
@Kevin this is so obvious answer it doesn't even feel like an answer :) — J0HN, Sep 01 '15 at 12:10
See also the docs on string literals, which includes a table of these backslash-escape sequences: https://docs.python.org/3/reference/lexical_analysis.html#string-and-bytes-literals — Tom Dalton, Sep 01 '15 at 12:11

m02ph3u5 · Answer 1 · 2020-02-14T09:44:02.070

You should escape the backslash so that it's not treated as escaping character itself:

Sys.stdout.write("abc\\ndef")

Background

The backslash \ tells the parser that the next character is something special and must be treated differently. That's why \n will not print as \n but as a newline. But how do we write a backslash then? We need to escape it, too, resulting in \\ for a single backslash and \\n for the output \n.

Docs here, also see this SO question

Alternatively you can use "raw" strings, i.e. prefixing your strings with an r, to disable interpreting escape sequences is your strings:

Sys.stdout.write(r"abc\ndef")

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 01 '15 at 12:13

7

As an alternative to escaping the backslash, you can disable backslash-escaping entirely by using a raw string literal:

>>> print(r"abc\ndef")
abc\ndef

answered Sep 01 '15 at 12:13

Tom Dalton

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You still need to backslash-escape a backslash if it's the last character, e.g. `r'test\\'`. – Maciej Gol Sep 01 '15 at 12:19

Including \n in a string in python

2 Answers2