Strings: double versus single quotes
Manfred Lotz
ml_news at posteo.de
Tue May 19 16:04:05 EDT 2020
On Tue, 19 May 2020 13:36:54 -0500
Tim Chase <python.list at tim.thechases.com> wrote:
> On 2020-05-19 20:10, Manfred Lotz wrote:
> > Hi there,
> > I am asking myself if I should preferably use single or double
> > quotes for strings?
>
> I'd say your consistency matters more than which one you choose.
>
> According to a recent observation by Raymond H.
>
> """
> Over time, the #python world has shown increasing preference
> for double quotes: "hello" versus 'hello'.
>
> Perhaps, this is due to the persistent influence of JSON,
> PyCharm, Black, and plain English.
>
> In contrast, the interpreter itself prefers single quotes:
>
> >>> "hello"
> 'hello'
> """
>
> https://twitter.com/raymondh/status/1259209765072154624
>
> I think the worst choice is to be haphazard in your usage with a
> hodgepodge of single/double quotes.
>
> I personally use habits from my C days: double-quotes for everything
> except single characters for which I use a single-quote:
>
> if 'e' in "hello":
>
> as in indicator that I'm using it as a single character rather than
> as a string.
>
> I don't have a firm rule for myself if a string contains
> double-quotes. It doesn't happen often for me in a case where I
> couldn't use a triple-quoted string or that I am refering to it as a
> single character.
>
> -tkc
>
>
I am influenced by Perl which I used before. In Perl I used double
quoted strings when I wanted interpolation. Otherwise single quoted
strings. In Rust (or C) it is double quotes for strings and single
quotes for characters.
You may be right. Consistency is a good thing. So, I have to decide for
what I use and be consistent thereafter.
--
Manfred
More information about the Python-list
mailing list