How do you write special characters in a python file?

I'm using Python to process some plain text into LaTeX, so I need to be able to write things like \begin{enumerate} or \newcommand to a file. When Python writes this to a file, though, it interprets \b and \n as special characters.

How do I get Python to write \newcommand to a file, instead of writing ewcommand on a new line?

The code is something like this ...

with open(fileout,'w',encoding='utf-8') as fout:
    fout.write("\begin{enumerate}[1.]\n")

Python 3, Mac OS 10.5 PPC

jensgram

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asked Nov 22, 2010 at 13:09

1

One solution is to escape the escape character (\). This will result in a literal backslash before the b character instead of escaping b:

with open(fileout,'w',encoding='utf-8') as fout:
    fout.write("\\begin{enumerate}[1.]\n")

This will be written to the file as

\begin{enumerate}[1.]<newline>

(I assume that the \n at the end is an intentional newline. If not, use double-escaping here as well: \\n.)

answered Nov 22, 2010 at 13:12

jensgramjensgram

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You just need to double the backslash: \\n, \\b. This will escape the backslash. You can also put the r prefix in front of your string: r'\begin'. As detailed here, this will prevent substitutions.

answered Nov 22, 2010 at 13:12

asthasrasthasr

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You can also use raw strings:

with open(fileout,'w',encoding='utf-8') as fout:
    fout.write(r"\begin{enumerate}[1.]\n")

Note the 'r' before \begin

answered Nov 22, 2010 at 13:14

Marco MarianiMarco Mariani

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Escape Characters

To insert characters that are illegal in a string, use an escape character.

An escape character is a backslash \ followed by the character you want to insert.

An example of an illegal character is a double quote inside a string that is surrounded by double quotes:

Example

You will get an error if you use double quotes inside a string that is surrounded by double quotes:

txt = "We are the so-called "Vikings" from the north."

Try it Yourself »

To fix this problem, use the escape character \":

Example

The escape character allows you to use double quotes when you normally would not be allowed:

txt = "We are the so-called \"Vikings\" from the north."

Try it Yourself »

Other escape characters used in Python:

How do you add a special character to a string in Python?

How do you print special characters in Python?

How do you denote a character in Python?

What is the data type of special characters in Python?