[python] syntaxerror: unexpected character after line continuation character in python

Can anybody tell me what is wrong in this program? I face

syntaxerror unexpected character after line continuation character

when I run this program:

f = open(D\\python\\HW\\2_1 - Copy.cp,"r");  
lines = f.readlines();

for i in lines:  
    thisline = i.split(" ");

This question is related to python file

The answer is


Replace

f = open(D\\python\\HW\\2_1 - Copy.cp,"r");

by

f = open("D:\\python\\HW\\2_1 - Copy.cp", "r")

  1. File path needs to be a string (constant)
  2. need colon in Windows file path
  3. space after comma for better style
  4. ; after statement is allowed but fugly.

What tutorial are you using?


The filename should be a string. In other names it should be within quotes.

f = open("D\\python\\HW\\2_1 - Copy.cp","r")
lines = f.readlines()
for i in lines:
    thisline = i.split(" ");

You can also open the file using with

with open("D\\python\\HW\\2_1 - Copy.cp","r") as f:
    lines = f.readlines()
    for i in lines:
        thisline = i.split(" ");

There is no need to add the semicolon(;) in python. It's ugly.


You need to quote that filename:

f = open("D\\python\\HW\\2_1 - Copy.cp", "r")

Otherwise the bare backslash after the D is interpreted as a line-continuation character, and should be followed by a newline. This is used to extend long expressions over multiple lines, for readability:

print "This is a long",\
      "line of text",\
      "that I'm printing."

Also, you shouldn't have semicolons (;) at the end of your statements in Python.