13.3. File Path Escape¶
Raw Strings
Always use raw-strings (
r"..."
) for pathsRaw String turns-off escape characters
>>> print(r'C:\Users\Admin\file.txt')
C:\Users\Admin\file.txt
>>> print('C:\\Users\\Admin\\file.txt')
C:\Users\Admin\file.txt
>>> print('C:\Users\Admin\file.txt')
Traceback (most recent call last):
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape
Problem is with \Users
. After escape sequence \U...
Python expects
hexadecimal Unicode codepoint, i.e. '\U0001F680' which is a rocket 🚀
emoticon. In this example, Python finds letter s
, which is invalid
hexadecimal character and therefore raises an SyntaxError
telling user
that there is an error with decoding bytes. The only valid hexadecimal
numbers are 0123456789abcdefABCDEF
and s
isn't one of them.
13.3.1. Escaping Characters in Path¶
"\ " (backslash space) - escapes space
Note that in Python escapes in paths are not required
>>> FILE = '/tmp/my file.txt'
>>> FILE = r'/tmp/my file.txt'
>>> FILE = r'C:\Users\Admin\myfile.txt'
>>>
>>>
>>> repr(FILE)
"'C:\\\\Users\\\\Admin\\\\myfile.txt'"
>>>
>>> str(FILE)
'C:\\Users\\Admin\\myfile.txt'
>>>
>>> print(repr(FILE))
'C:\\Users\\Admin\\myfile.txt'
>>>
>>> print(FILE)
C:\Users\Admin\myfile.txt