[Tutor] Escape sequences

[David Heiser]

That worked just dandy. Thanks.


-----Original Message-----
From: tutor-bounces at python.org [mailto:tutor-bounces at python.org] On
Behalf Of Kent Johnson
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 1:03 PM
Cc: tutor at python.org
Subject: Re: [Tutor] Escape sequences


David Heiser wrote:
> I have code that assigns escape sequences to variables like 
> "self.resetString = '\03'". As long as they are hard coded in, 
> everything works fine.
> 
> But I want to read the variable from a text/config file so my users 
> can override the defaults. In the file are a list of "parameter = 
> value" pairs like "resetString = \03". As the file is parsed, each 
> pair is stored in a dictionary; "parmeterDictionary[parameter] = 
> value".
> 
> Then in the code, the value is assigned to the variable with a 
> statement like "self.resetString = parmeterDictionary['resetString']".
> 
> Simple ASCII strings work fine, but the escape sequences don't work 
> and the code fails. "print self.resetString" returns "\\03", instead 
> of a nonprintable character.

Use the 'string_escape' codec to decode the escaped strings:

In [1]: s= '\\03'

In [2]: s
Out[2]: '\\03'

In [3]: len(s)
Out[3]: 3

In [4]: s.decode('string_escape')
Out[4]: '\x03'

In [5]: len(_)
Out[5]: 1

Kent

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