Part 2 - Triple quotes & escape characters

 Triple quotes

To display a long message, we can use the triple quote symbol (''' or """) to span a message over multiple lines.

Example

print('''Hello World.

My name is Bee and I am -- years old''')

Output

Hello World.

My name is Bee and I am -- years old

This helps with readability.

Escape characters

We can print special 'unprintable' characters such as a tab, quote or a newline. In this case, we use the backslash (\) to escape characters that otherwise have a different meaning. 

Example

To print a tab, we type a backslash before the letter t (\t). Without it, the t will be printed. With it, a tab is printed. So, if we type print("Hello\tWorld") we will get

Hello    World

Other uses

\n prints a newline.

print("Hello\nWorld") 

Output:

Hello

World

\\ prints the backslash itself.

print("\\") 

Output:

\

\' prints a single quote to prevent ending a string in single quotes.

print('You\'re a dingus') 

Output:

You're a dingus

\" prints a double quote to prevent ending a string in double quotes.

print("I'm not a \"dingus\"") 

Output:

I'm not a "dingus"

Raw strings

To print characters unpreceded by a backslash to be interpreted as special characters, we can use raw strings by adding a small r before the first quote of a string.

Example

For \t to not be interpreted as a tab, we will type print(r"dingus\tshabingus").

Output

dingus\tshabingus