what is wrong with that r"\"

[Neil Cerutti]

On 2007-07-03, alf <ask at me> wrote:
> question without words:
>
> >>> r"\"
>    File "<stdin>", line 1
>      r"\"
>         ^
> SyntaxError: EOL while scanning single-quoted string
> >>> r"\ "
> '\\ '

>From the Python Language Reference 2.4.1 String Literals:

   When an "r" or "R" prefix is present, a character following a
   backslash is included in the string without change, and all
   backslashes are left in the string. For example, the string
   literal r"\n" consists of two characters: a backslash and a
   lowercase "n". String quotes can be escaped with a backslash,
   but the backslash remains in the string; for example, r"\"" is
   a valid string literal consisting of two characters: a
   backslash and a double quote; r"\" is not a valid string
   literal (even a raw string cannot end in an odd number of
   backslashes). Specifically, a raw string cannot end in a
   single backslash (since the backslash would escape the
   following quote character). Note also that a single backslash
   followed by a newline is interpreted as those two characters
   as part of the string, not as a line continuation. 

-- 
Neil Cerutti
Ask about our plans for owning your home --sign at mortgage company