OriginalBrownster wrote: > Hi there... > > I'm still pretty new to turbogears. but i have gotten pretty familiar > with it > > i'm just trying to clear something up, i'm having a difficult time > using \ when declaring a string expression > > such as tempname="\"..it says that the line is single qouted. > > i want this because using python I am pulling in filenames from a > mac..thus they are "/" in the pathways..and i want to .split it at the > "/" to obtain the filename at the end...but its proving diffucult with > this obstacle in the way. > > Why is this happening??
In Python (and many other programming languages), the backslash is the "escape character". That is, special characters are indicated by sequences that start with a backslash. >>> print 'Line 1\nLine 2' # \n = newline Line 1 Line 2 >>> print 'tab\tseparated\ttext' # \t = tab tab separated text >>> print 'This parrot is dead\b\b\b\balive!' # \b = backspace This parrot is alive! >>> print 'The ASCII code for \x41 is 0x41.' The ASCII code for A is 0x41. >>> 'It\'s necessary to escape a quote that\'s within the same type of quote.' "It's necessary to escape a quote that's within the same type of quote." An escape sequence is always considered a single character. (As mentioned earlier, you can verify this with the len function.) Thus, your "\" gets parsed as: " = opening quote of string \" = double quotation mark (escaped) end of line = error, because no closing quote was found If you want a backslash, you have to escape *it* with a backslash: "\\" -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
