Translate escaped characters in a string

[-]

Hi

I have an application that reads the arguments sent to the script. If
an user enters a text like "Line 1\nLine2" (\n is slash+n, and not
LF), I would like to use \n and other supported escape sequences when
I write the text to a file.

Is there a way to do this, other than writing my own parser?

[Ben Finney]

On 2 Apr 2004 15:57:59 -0800, - wrote:

(\n is slash+n, and not LF)
No, "\n" is backslash + n. Slash + n would be "/n".
I would like to use \n and other supported escape sequences when I
write the text to a file.

Once you know the proper name for the character you're talking about,
you can find modules like this one:

<http://www.crazy-compilers.com/py-lib/shellwords.html>

which may be helpful.

--
\ "The best is the enemy of the good." -- Voltaire |
`\ |
_o__) |
Ben Finney <http://bignose.squidly.org/>

[Josiah Carlson]

> I have an application that reads the arguments sent to the script. If

an user enters a text like "Line 1\nLine2" (\n is slash+n, and not
LF), I would like to use \n and other supported escape sequences when
I write the text to a file.

Is there a way to do this, other than writing my own parser?

I know there's an easier way to do it, but the below works...

import encodings
print encodings.codecs.escape_decode('hello\\nworld')[0] hello
world

If the stings are escaped normally, the above will produce what you want.

- Josiah