backslash plague

[Alex Martelli]

Luis P. Mendes <luisXX_lupe2XX at netvisaoXX.pt> wrote:
    ...
> I've already read many pages on this but I'm not able to separate the
> string 'R0\1.2646\1.2649\D' in four elements, using the \ as the separator.

x = r'R0\1.2646\1.2649\D'
elements = x.split('\\')

> and why must I write two '' after the \?  If I hadn't used r I would
> understand...

A raw literal can't end with an odd number of backslashes (_some_ way
has to be there to escape the quote char, after all).

> how should I do it?

I think the string's split method, as above, is the simplest, fastest
way.


Alex