David Heiser wrote: > > I have code that uses variables to hold escaped characters like "\n" > or "\03". As long as the assignment is done within the code, like > self.crChar = "\n", there is no problem. But When I try to read the > same character string from a text file and assign it, the string is > seen as just a string of characters instead of an escape sequence, and > the program fails. > > I read the "parameter = value" pairs, like "crChar = \n", from an > ASCII file and store them in a dictionary; "parameterDict[parameter] = > value". Then I assign the value to the variable using "self.crChar = > parameterDict["crChar"]. When I print "self.crChar", it displays "\\n > <file://%5C%5Cn>" and it doesn't behave like a carriage return. Please include the code that is causing you trouble instead of trying to sum up what you think the problem is. Quite often the problem is just a simple syntax or other error that the beginner may overlook that we can help by pointing out to you.
In this situation, I believe what's happening is that you expect this: #ascii text file hello, world!\n #----- end to be read into python as >>> f.readlines()[0] == 'hello, world!\n' True but no, that's not what the file says. The file says 'hello, world \\n' because you can see an actual \ in the file text, right? So in python it'll be represented by a double-backslash. The actual \n is an escape code, you can't ever see it in files. In the file #start a b c d e #end >>> print f.readlines() ['a\n','b\n','c\n','d\n','e\n'] You don't explicitly put \n in a text file to have a string with \n at the end. You hit enter at the end of the line. > > Can anyone guide me toward a resolution? > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor > _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
