Forcing quote characters in repr(STRING), how?

[Duncan Booth]

"Tim Peters" <tim.one at home.com> wrote in <mailman.988841104.7613.python-
list at python.org>:

> [François Pinard]
>> When using `repr()' on a string, Python automatically selects if it
>> will use single or double quotes to enclose the produced
>> representation of the string.  Is there a clean way to force that
>> choice to be, under user control, a particular quote character
>> (either simple or double)?
> 
> Not a clean way, nor even a dirty way:  the logic is hardcoded.
> 
Never say there isn't a dirty way. The following works, although I really 
wouldn't recommend it:

def quote(s, dquote=0):
    """Return repr of the string argument forcing single or double 
quotes."""
    if dquote:
        nasty="'\0"
    else:
        nasty='"\0'

    r = repr(nasty+s)
    bad = len(`nasty`)-1
    r = r[0]+r[bad:]
    return r

if __name__=='__main__':
    def test(s):
        print "single quote(%s) -> %s" % (`s`, quote(s, 0))
        print "double quote(%s) -> %s" % (`s`, quote(s, 1))

    test("ab'cd")
    test("ab'c\"d")
    test('ab"cd')
    

-- 
Duncan Booth                                             duncan at rcp.co.uk
int month(char *p){return(124864/((p[0]+p[1]-p[2]&0x1f)+1)%12)["\5\x8\3"
"\6\7\xb\1\x9\xa\2\0\4"];} // Who said my code was obscure?