3.3.2. Backslash

Inserting a backslash \ in a string tells Python that the following character is a special character. It may be used to enter quotes, line breaks or backslashes in a string.

3.3.2.1. Single-quote \' and double-quote \"

If a same string needs to include both apostrophes and double-quotes, then it is impossible to select a correct delimiter. Backslashing a quote character (\', \") tells python that this really is a character, and not a delimiter. For instance:

example1 = "I didn't write \"E = mc2\", Einstein did."
example2 = 'I didn\'t write "E = mc2", Einstein did.'

print(example1)
print(example2)

I didn't write "E = mc2", Einstein did.
I didn't write "E = mc2", Einstein did.

3.3.2.2. Line break: \n

Newline characters are inserted using \n:

example_string = "I ate your sandwich.\nIt was good."

print(example_string)

I ate your sandwich.
It was good.

3.3.2.3. Backslash: \\

To include a backslash in the string, we need to backslash it so that Python sees it as a character instead of a backslash command:

file_path = "C:\\Windows\\important_driver.dll"

print(file_path)

C:\Windows\important_driver.dll