Replacing "/" with "\" doesn't work

Question

I am trying to replace / with \ as below, but it doesn't work, why is that?

str = "images/companyPkg/Pkg/nib64/"
replaced_str = str.replace('//','\\')
print replaced_str

it seems weird that you would need to change the `/` character in something that looks like a path anyway ... — mgilson, Jul 27 '16 at 19:43

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '16 at 19:43

'/' does not need to be doubled. '\' is doubled because strings cannot end with '\':

s = "images/companyPkg/Pkg/nib64/"
replaced_str = s.replace('/','\\')

Don't assign anything to the name str, str is a builtin (class for strings) in Python. Making an assignment will make the builtin name unusable later on in your code. You don't want that.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 27 '16 at 19:45

2

You don't need to escape the / in python just the \ so the following line should do the trick:

replaced_str = str.replace('/', '\\')

answered Jul 27 '16 at 19:45

Sean McMillan

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2
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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 27 '16 at 20:03

You should double the back slash \ because it is the escape character and used to provide a special meaning to the certain characters as for example n is simple 'n' but \n is a new line, but forward slash / is a simple character so you don't need to double it.

You should write replaced_str = str.replace('/','\\')

Replacing "/" with "\" doesn't work

3 Answers3