The Python reference manual includes several string literals that can be used in a string. These special sequences of characters are replaced by the intended meaning of the escape sequence.
Here is a table of some of the more useful escape sequences and a description of the output from them.
Escape Sequence Meaning
\t Tab
\\ Inserts a back slash (\)
\' Inserts a single quote (')
\" Inserts a double quote (")
\n Inserts a ASCII Linefeed (a new line)
Basic Example
If i wanted to print some data points separated by a tab space I could print this string.
DataString = "0\t12\t24"
print (DataString)
Returns
0 12 24
Example for Lists
Here is another example where we are printing the items of list and we want to sperate the items by a TAB.
DataPoints = [0,12,24]
print (str(DataPoints[0]) + "\t" + str(DataPoints[1]) + "\t" + str(DataPoints[2]))
Returns
0 12 24
Raw Strings
Note that raw strings (a string which include a prefix "r"), string literals will be ignored. This allows these special sequences of characters to be included in strings without being changed.
DataString = r"0\t12\t24"
print (DataString)
Returns
0\t12\t24
Which maybe an undesired output
String Lengths
It should also be noted that string literals are only one character in length.
DataString = "0\t12\t24"
print (len(DataString))
Returns
7
The raw string has a length of 9.
You can use \t in a string literal:
"hello\talex"
As it wasn't mentioned in any answers, just in case you want to align and space your text, you can use the string format features. (above python 2.5) Of course \t
is actually a TAB token whereas the described method generates spaces.
Example:
print "{0:30} {1}".format("hi", "yes")
> hi yes
Another Example, left aligned:
print("{0:<10} {1:<10} {2:<10}".format(1.0, 2.2, 4.4))
>1.0 2.2 4.4
Assume I have a variable named file
that contains a file.
Then I could use file.write("hello\talex")
.
file.write("hello
means I'm starting to write to this file.\t
means a tabalex")
is the rest I'm writingIt's usually \t
in command-line interfaces, which will convert the char \t
into the whitespace tab character.
For example, hello\talex
-> hello--->alex
.
Here are some more exotic Python 3 ways to get "hello" TAB "alex" (tested with Python 3.6.10):
"hello\N{TAB}alex"
"hello\N{tab}alex"
"hello\N{TaB}alex"
"hello\N{HT}alex"
"hello\N{CHARACTER TABULATION}alex"
"hello\N{HORIZONTAL TABULATION}alex"
"hello\x09alex"
"hello\u0009alex"
"hello\U00000009alex"
Actually, instead of using an escape sequence, it is possible to insert tab symbol directly into the string literal. Here is the code with a tabulation character to copy and try:
"hello alex"
If the tab in the string above won't be lost anywhere during copying the string then "print(repr(< string from above >)" should print 'hello\talex'.
See respective Python documentation for reference.
Source: Stackoverflow.com