newbie - variable "buried in quotes"

[Peter Hansen]

Peter Hansen wrote:
> The % operator goes immediately after the string on which it operates:
> 
> gp.FeatureclassToCoverage_conversion("'Database
> Connections\\%s at GIS_srv-earth.sde\\GIS.GIS.Cadastral\\GIS.GIS.Parcels'
> POLYGON" % luser, prcl83, "", "DOUBLE")

Missed your buried question about line continuations.  Yes, there is 
one, and it's the conventional \ at the end of the line.

On the other hand, there are better approaches:

gp.FeatureclassToCoverage_conversion("'Database Connections"
     "\\%s at GIS_srv-earth.sde\\GIS.GIS.Cadastral\\GIS.GIS.Parcels'"
     "POLYGON" % luser, prcl83, "", "DOUBLE")

That, for example, uses the fact that adjacent strings are combined into 
one by the parser.  Since they are all enclosed in parentheses, they are 
considered "adjacent" even though they come on different lines without 
line continuation characters.

It's pretty rare to need to use \ to continue lines, unless it's just a 
style you don't mind or prefer.

(Personally, I'd write this differently.  Create a variable called path 
or something just above that line, doing the string substitution when 
you build it.  Then the call to FeatureclassToCoverage_conversion() can 
come all on one line using "path", even with its unwieldy name. :-)

-Peter