Python escape characters

Certain characters are difficult to type in a string. For example: we know that a string is defined in double or single code but what will we do if we want that a string defined in double quotes should have double quotes? There are many such difficult to type of characters which can be encoded into a string using a backslash (\) character. This tutorial is dedicated to that.

New line character – \n

What would you do if you want to insert an end of line or line break in a string variable? Well, here is a solution: use \n as shown in the example below:

var1 = "Welcome \n John"
print (var1)

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How to add double quotes in a string variable that is defined in double quotes

If you want the string to have the value of: welcome “John” then you will require to insert \” before John as shown in the code below:

var1 = "Welcome \"John\""
print (var1)

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Similarly a single quote can be added with the help of \’.

var1 = 'Welcome \'John\''
print (var1)

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ASCII bell – \a

‘\a’ is used to produce a motherboard beep. Try out the following code to see how the output displays in python shell.

var1  =  "Welcome \a John\a"
print (var1)

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ASCII backspace – \b

ASCII backspace can be inserted in the string literal with the help of ‘\b’. Execute the following code to see the output in Python shell.

var1 = "Welcome \b John\b"
print (var1)

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ASCII form feed \f

ASCII formfeed ‘\f’, skips to the start of the next page and is generally where the output goes to the printer.

var1 = "Welcome \f John"
print(var1)

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Horizontal tab – \t

As the name suggests \t adds a horizontal tab in the string variable.

var1 = "Welcome John"
var2 = "\tWelcome John"
print (var1)
print (var2) 

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