How do you print a backslash in python?

You need to escape your backslash by preceding it with, yes, another backslash:

print("\\")

And for versions prior to Python 3:

print "\\"

The \ character is called an escape character, which interprets the character following it differently. For example, n by itself is simply a letter, but when you precede it with a backslash, it becomes \n, which is the newline character.

As you can probably guess, \ also needs to be escaped so it doesn't function like an escape character. You have to... escape the escape, essentially.

See the Python 3 documentation for string literals.

Print a backslash in Python #

To print a backslash:

1. Use a second backslash character to escape each backslash in the string.
2. Use the print() function to print the result.
3. The backslash character has a special meaning, so it has to be escaped with a second backslash.

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# ✅ Print a single backslash (escaping)
my_str = 'Alice\\Bob\\Carl'
print(my_str)  # 👉️ Alice\Bob\Carl

# --------------------------------------

# ✅ print double backslash (escaping)
my_str = 'Alice\\\\Bob\\\\Carl'
print(my_str)  # 👉️ Alice\\Bob\\Carl

# --------------------------------------

# ✅ print single backslash (raw string)
my_str = r'Alice\Bob\Carl'
print(my_str)  # 👉️ Alice\Bob\Carl

# --------------------------------------

# ✅ print double backslash (raw string)
my_str = r'Alice\\Bob\\Carl'
print(my_str)  # 👉️ Alice\\Bob\\Carl

The first example uses a second backslash to escape each backslash character in the string.

The backslash \ character has a special meaning in Python - it is used as an escape character (e.g. \n or \t).

By adding a second backslash, we treat the \ as a literal character.

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my_str = 'Alice\\Bob\\Carl'
print(my_str)  # 👉️ Alice\Bob\Carl

If you need to print two backslash characters next to one another, use four backslashes.

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my_str = 'Alice\\\\Bob\\\\Carl'
print(my_str)  # 👉️ Alice\\Bob\\Carl

Alternatively, you can use a raw string.

Print a backslash using a raw string #

Prefix the string with r to print a backslash, e.g. print(r'Alice\Bob\Carl'). When a string is prefixed with r, it treats backslashes as literal characters and escaping them is not necessary.

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my_str = r'Alice\Bob\Carl'
print(my_str)  # 👉️ Alice\Bob\Carl


my_str = r'Alice\\Bob\\Carl'
print(my_str)  # 👉️ Alice\\Bob\\Carl

Strings that are prefixed with r are called raw strings and treat backslashes as literal characters.

There is no need to escape backslash characters when using a raw string.

If you need to interpolate variables in a raw string, use a formatted string literal.

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name = 'Bob'
my_str = fr'Alice\{name}\Carl'
print(my_str) # 👉️ Alice\Bob\Carl

Formatted string literals (f-strings) let us include expressions inside of a string by prefixing the string with f.

Make sure to wrap expressions in curly braces - {expression}.

Notice that the string is prefixed with fr and not just with f.

If you are constructing a path, e.g. to a directory or a file, you can use forward slashes instead of backslashes.

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file_name = 'C:/Users/Alice/Desktop/example.txt'

# 👇️ C:/Users/Bob/Desktop/example.txt
print(file_name)

A forward slash can be used in the place of a backslash when you need to specify a path.

Backslash characters have a special meaning in Python, so to treat them as literal characters, we have to:

• escape each backslash with a second backslash
• prefix the string with r to mark it as a raw string
• use forward slashes in the place of backslashes in a path

How do you print a backslash?

How does Python handle backslash?

How can you put a backslash character in a string?