How to format escape sequences inside a function

Question

I want to import a value inside a function which will work as an escape sequence on the string the function should print. Any help is greatly appreciated.

def vhf(c):
    print "...I want this \%s escape sequence" % c

vhf('n')

The output is :

...I want this \n escape sequence

But I want it to be:

...I want this
escape sequence

If possible, you should switch to Python v3.7+ - https://pythonclock.org/ — wwii, Jul 08 '19 at 14:13

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 08 '19 at 14:35

2

Since you aren't working with string literals, don't use escape sequences in the function.

def vhf(c):
    print "...I want this %s escape sequence" % (c,)

vhf('\n')

answered Jul 08 '19 at 14:35

chepner

497,756
71
530
681

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 08 '19 at 14:28

According to this thread, which discussed a similar issue, you could make use of the built-in String method decode together with the 'string-escape' codec:

def vhf(c):
    s = "...I want this \\" + c + " escape sequence"
    print s.decode('string_escape')

How to format escape sequences inside a function

2 Answers2