[Python-checkins] gh-80143: Add clarification for escape characters (#92292)
rhettinger
webhook-mailer at python.org
Tue May 10 12:12:38 EDT 2022
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/549567c6e70da4846c105a18a1a89e7dd09680d7
commit: 549567c6e70da4846c105a18a1a89e7dd09680d7
branch: main
author: slateny <46876382+slateny at users.noreply.github.com>
committer: rhettinger <rhettinger at users.noreply.github.com>
date: 2022-05-10T11:12:29-05:00
summary:
gh-80143: Add clarification for escape characters (#92292)
files:
M Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst
diff --git a/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst b/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst
index 0e64a056a6eb2..1cf0a5b15cbbb 100644
--- a/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst
+++ b/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst
@@ -480,9 +480,11 @@ declaration is given in the source file; see section :ref:`encodings`.
In plain English: Both types of literals can be enclosed in matching single quotes
(``'``) or double quotes (``"``). They can also be enclosed in matching groups
of three single or double quotes (these are generally referred to as
-*triple-quoted strings*). The backslash (``\``) character is used to escape
-characters that otherwise have a special meaning, such as newline, backslash
-itself, or the quote character.
+*triple-quoted strings*). The backslash (``\``) character is used to give special
+meaning to otherwise ordinary characters like ``n``, which means 'newline' when
+escaped (``\n``). It can also be used to escape characters that otherwise have a
+special meaning, such as newline, backslash itself, or the quote character.
+See :ref:`escape sequences <escape-sequences>` below for examples.
.. index::
single: b'; bytes literal
@@ -541,6 +543,8 @@ retained), except that three unescaped quotes in a row terminate the literal. (
single: \u; escape sequence
single: \U; escape sequence
+.. _escape-sequences:
+
Unless an ``'r'`` or ``'R'`` prefix is present, escape sequences in string and
bytes literals are interpreted according to rules similar to those used by
Standard C. The recognized escape sequences are:
More information about the Python-checkins
mailing list