Docstring invalid escape sequence triggered by a display equation in latex

Question

I put a latex math expression in the docstring for a function in Python. It triggers a error "W605 invalid escape sequence" which breaks flake8 checking. How to fix it?

"""
The test function is defined as:
\sin(\pi x)/x
"""

I solved this by using double slashes now.

Are you going to show us the code? – Klaus D. Apr 20 '20 at 00:57 — Klaus D., Apr 20 '20 at 00:57
Can you just use `\\sin(\\pi x)/x` in your string? – Todd Apr 20 '20 at 01:07 — Todd, Apr 20 '20 at 01:07

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 15 '21 at 09:58

Use a raw string for the docstring

import math
def do_this(x):
    r"""This doc string contains a backslash \sin(x)"""
    print(math.sin(x))

Then flake8 will not complain anymore. See this answer mentioning PEP 257 for more details on the fact that raw doc strings are needed when they contain backslashes.

Docstring invalid escape sequence triggered by a display equation in latex

1 Answers1