Python - difference between 'a' and "a"?

Question

I have been always mixing these two notations, regarding them both as a string in Python.

What are the differences between them?

Under what circumstances can we only use one of them?

There is no difference, they are completely interchangeable. — BrenBarn, Oct 04 '13 at 02:22
Also check the relevant [documentation](http://docs.python.org/2/reference/lexical_analysis.html#string-literals). — vanza, Oct 04 '13 at 02:25
Use single quotes. You'll need less ink if you're going to print the code. :-) — Matthias, Oct 04 '13 at 05:08
I use single quotes because it's less work for my pinky to not have to hit the shift key. — SethMMorton, Oct 04 '13 at 06:01

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 04 '13 at 02:22

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They're the same. The only time it ever matters is that you have to escape the delimiter character: "\"" vs '"'.

Personally, I usually use ' for strings that aren't "user-visible" and " for strings that are, but I'm not completely consistent with that and I don't think it's common practice.

answered Oct 04 '13 at 02:22

Danica

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I'm really bad at this. I have source files with mixed quotes all over the place... I've recently started working with a linter which complains every time I'm inconsistent in my quoting and it's always complaining at me ... – mgilson Oct 04 '13 at 03:10

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

2

No difference at all: they mean exactly the same thing. Yes, that's unusual for Python ;-)

Some programmers like to put one-character strings in single quotes, and longer strings in double quotes. Probably a habit carried over from C. Do what you like :-)

Ah: a lot more discussion here.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

Community

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answered Oct 04 '13 at 02:23

Tim Peters

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If you're a fan of programming psychology, here's an oddity I noticed years ago: triple-quoted strings in Python are, at least 10 to 1, spelled with double quotes instead of single quotes. Something about the way our brains are wired ;-) – Tim Peters Oct 04 '13 at 02:39

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 04 '13 at 02:23

1

They are equal and depend on your preferences

but you can do this:

>>> print 'Double" quote inside single'
Double" quote inside single
>>> print "Single' quote inside double"
Single' quote inside double

answered Oct 04 '13 at 02:23

Serial

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 04 '13 at 02:24

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They are the same, though I prefer to use 'single quotes'as they're easier to read

answered Oct 04 '13 at 02:24

Alvaro

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Python - difference between 'a' and "a"?

4 Answers4