How to use \ in a string without it's escape effect

Question

I'm trying to implement the next line:

with open('.\numbers.txt', 'r') as f:

The \n in the path is being recognized as the new line special character.

Does this answer your question? [Why do backslashes appear twice?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24085680/why-do-backslashes-appear-twice) — decorator-factory, Jun 03 '22 at 23:22
Put another backslash before ```n```. Like this: ```with open('.\\numbers.txt', 'r') as f:``` — MohammadReza Hosseini, Jun 03 '22 at 23:23
Also, it is better to import ```os``` and use its utilities to do things related to paths and directories so that your program is compatible with different OS. — MohammadReza Hosseini, Jun 03 '22 at 23:26

Apollo-Roboto · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-03T23:35:46.033

1

You can use the raw string by prefixing the string with r

print(r'.\numbers.txt')

Or escape the backslashes with \\

print('.\\numbers.txt')

edited Jun 03 '22 at 23:35

answered Jun 03 '22 at 23:26

Apollo-Roboto

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 03 '22 at 23:28

1

You need to escape the escape character. So

with open('.\\numbers.txt', 'r') as f:

This should work for your needs.

Thanks Scott.

answered Jun 03 '22 at 23:28

Scotty

2 Answers2