python - How to print a single backslash?

Question

When I write print('') or print("") or print("''"), Python doesn't print the backslash symbol. Instead it errors for the first two and prints '' for the second. What should I do to print a backslash?

Answer 1

You need to escape your backslash by preceding it with, yes, another backslash:

print("")

And for versions prior to Python 3:

print ""

The character is called an escape character, which interprets the character following it differently. For example, n by itself is simply a letter, but when you precede it with a backslash, it becomes , which is the newline character.

As you can probably guess, also needs to be escaped so it doesn't function like an escape character. You have to... escape the escape, essentially.

See the Python 3 documentation for string literals.