The backslash at print function in Python

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Hello everyone ,
Please i want to know how does the string in print been executed

Python

print("Twinkle, twinkle, little star,\n\
\tHow I wonder what you are!\n\
\t\tUp above the world so high,\n\
\t\tLike a diamond in the sky.\n\
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,\n\
\tHow I wonder what you are!")

me i see that the backslash allows us to return to following line and he doesn't enter in the execution of the instruction .how is that work ?i need some clarifications please.

What I have tried:

searching on the net and coding

Posted 20-Sep-21 6:10am

Mohamed AIT HADDOU

Updated 20-Sep-21 6:24am

v2

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Richard MacCutchan · Answer 1 · 2021-09-20T06:24:00

Solution 1

Python Escape Characters[^]

Posted 20-Sep-21 6:24am

Richard MacCutchan

Comments

Mohamed AIT HADDOU 22-Sep-21 11:34am

Hello,i talk about the backslash only inside the print function not \n (see code) it allow to write the string in various line inside print

Richard MacCutchan 22-Sep-21 11:46am

It's nothing to do with the print function. The backslash is used to escape certain characters inside text strings, and is handled by the compiler. And this is fairly universal in all programming languages.

See also 3. An Informal Introduction to Python — Python 3.9.7 documentation[^].

Mohamed AIT HADDOU 22-Sep-21 12:37pm

There is not compiling in python , how the interpreter works with this instruction that is what i want to know please dear Richard ? notice that i read the documentation and i t was useful.i will be happy to have a clarification in this thing

Richard MacCutchan 22-Sep-21 12:48pm

There is an element of compiling in Python as it interprets the source code and turns it into executable statements. And part of that includes replacing escape sequences in strings. It is easy to test:

foo = "My \name is \richard";
with open("zzz.txt", 'w') as f:
    f.write(foo)

Now open zzz.txt in Notepad or any hex editor.