python split a string with special charcter

Question:

I need to split a string that I receive like that :

my_string = "datadetails350.23.43.txt"

when I use my_string.replace ("\", "/")

it returns : /data/detailsè.23.43.txt

It’s considering the 350 in my string as a special character 'è'

Asked By: sevenfold

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Answers:

in string literals are treated as escaping chars. That is why s1 = "linensecond line" creates a string with two lines. That is also why you use "\" in my_string.replace ("\", "/").

So to fix your problem, if you’re using a string literal my string = "datadetails350.23.43.txt" you should instead use "\data\details\350.23.43.txt" to make sure your are properly escaped. Alternatively, you can use a raw string my string = r"datadetails350.23.43.txt" by prepending r to the quote. That way nothing gets escaped (so r"n" would be a 2 char string with and n instead of just a single new line char)

Answered By: Faboor

Edit after your comment:
Try

my_string = r"datadetails350.23.43.txt"

That happens because ooo is interpreted as a character with octal value as described in the docs.

I guess the only way is to escape the as in:

my_string = "datadetails\350.23.43.txt"

Then you can do stuff like:

my_string.split("\")

Where do you get the string from? Is there a way to influence that?

And this looks like a path. It would be better to use

os.path.join("data", "details", "350.23.43.txt")

to create paths independently of the operating system.

Answered By: bechtold