Python - print string to screen, include \n in output

Question

I have the following code:

pattern = "something.*\n" #intended to be a regular expression

fileString = some/path/to/file

numMatches = len( re.findall(pattern, fileString, 0) )

print "Found ", numMatches, " matches to ", pattern, " in file."

I want the user to be able to see the '\n' included in pattern. At the moment, the '\n' in pattern writes a newline to the screen. So the output is like:

Found 10 matches to something.*
 in file.

and I want it to be:

Found 10 matches to something.*\n in file.

Yes, pattern.replace("\n", "\n") does work. But I want it to print all forms of escape characters, including \t, \e etc. Any help is appreciated.

This has already been asked, hopefully this points you in the correct direction: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6477823/python-display-special-characters-when-using-print-statement — dkroy, Jun 10 '13 at 19:22
`displayPattern = "something.*\s"` use `\s` to find the newline character — abhishekgarg, Jun 10 '13 at 19:26

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 10 '13 at 19:22

9

Use repr(pattern) to print the \n the way you need.

answered Jun 10 '13 at 19:22

iurisilvio

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score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 10 '13 at 19:22

Try this:

displayPattern = "something.*\\n"
print "Found ", numMatches, " matches to ", displayPattern, " in file."

You'll have to specify a different string for each case of the pattern - one for matching and one for displaying. In the display pattern, notice how the \ character is being escaped: \\.

Alternatively, use the built-in repr() function:

displayPattern = repr(pattern)
print "Found ", numMatches, " matches to ", displayPattern, " in file."

Drew · Answer 3 · 2013-06-10T19:48:51.117

0

print repr(string)
#or
print string.__repr__()

Hope this helps.

edited Jun 10 '13 at 19:48

answered Jun 10 '13 at 19:22

Drew

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Why use `string.__repr__()` instead of `repr(string)`? – Nick Peterson Jun 10 '13 at 19:24
@ntpeterson I didn't realize it existed until just now. Changing it now. – Drew Jun 10 '13 at 19:29

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 10 '13 at 19:42

0

Also another way to use repr is with the %r format string. I would normally write this as

print "Found %d matches to %r in file." % (numMatches, pattern)

answered Jun 10 '13 at 19:42

bwbrowning

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Python - print string to screen, include \n in output

4 Answers4