Replacing backslash '\' in python

Question

When trying to replace '\' in python, the data changed and give me unknown letters.

i have tried string.replace, re.sub, regex_replace

a = '70\123456'
b = '70\123\456'

a = a.replace('\\','-')
b = b.replace('\\','-')

Expected Result:

a = '70-123456'
b = '70-123-456'

But The Actual Result is:

a = 70S456
b = 70SĮ

What is the problem and how to solve it?

Try `print('70\123456')`. That string never contained a backslash to begin with… — deceze, Aug 27 '19 at 10:30
Try to `print(a, b)` right after you define them. Do any of them have a backslash? — ForceBru, Aug 27 '19 at 10:30
See what `\ooo` means in a string literal: https://docs.python.org/3/reference/lexical_analysis.html#index-22 — deceze, Aug 27 '19 at 10:31
In python strings, backslashes followed by numbers mean (sometimes) special characters, if you want to represent backslashes, you should double them (e.g: "\\") or use r"\" — Davichete, Aug 27 '19 at 10:35
They don't need to be special, e.g. `"\110\145\154\154\157\054\040\127\157\162\154\144\041"` is valid but not canonical. `repr` can frequently help. — Yann Vernier, Aug 27 '19 at 10:38

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 27 '19 at 10:31

6

That's because \123 and \456 are special characters(octal). Try this:

a = r'70\123456'
b = r'70\123\456'

a = a.replace('\\','-')
b = b.replace('\\','-')

print(a)
print(b)

answered Aug 27 '19 at 10:31

Kostas Charitidis

i i want to make a script to concatenate 'r' with '70\123456'. from pyspark.sql.functions import concat_ws n = concat_ws('r','70\123456') print(n) result: Column – Charbel Keedy Aug 29 '19 at 05:48
@CharbelKeedy I didn't understand what you mean. – Kostas Charitidis Aug 29 '19 at 06:02
my fields are coming as 70\123456 not as r'70\123456'. How to Handle it? – Charbel Keedy Sep 03 '19 at 11:19
@CharbelKeedy what do you mean by fields are coming like this? If that's your literal wherever it comes from python handles it and parses it automatically to `70\\123456` from `70\123456`. It escapes the slash – Kostas Charitidis Sep 03 '19 at 12:17

1 Answers1