assigning multi-line strings to variables

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:16:46 +0100, MRAB wrote:

> Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> On Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:17:42 +1000, Lie Ryan wrote:
>> 
>>>> Consider that the concatenation language feature probably is there
>>>> because it's useful (e.g. it preserves indentation and allows per
>>>> line comments).
>>> No, the implicit concatenation is there because Python didn't always
>>> have triple quoted string.
>> 
>> Do you have a source for that?
>> 
>> Both triple-quoted strings and implicit concatenation go back to at
>> least Python 1.4:
>> 
>> http://docs.python.org/release/1.4/tut/node71.html
>> http://docs.python.org/release/1.4/tut/node70.html
>> 
> The page here:
> 
>      http://svn.python.org/projects/python/branches/py3k/Misc/HISTORY
> 
> says release 1.0.2 (4 May 1994).

Yes, it says:

    * String literals follow Standard C rules: they may be continued 
    on the next line using a backslash; adjacent literals are 
    concatenated at compile time.

    * A new kind of string literals, surrounded by triple quotes 
    (""" or '''), can be continued on the next line without a 
    backslash.


These are adjacent entries in the same release. That's pretty good 
evidence that both implicit concatenation and triple quotes were 
introduced at the same time.



-- 
Steven