[Python-Dev] Multiline Strings confusion it tutorial (original) (raw)

Ethan Furman ethan at stoneleaf.us
Sat Apr 13 01:55:15 CEST 2013

On 04/12/2013 03:58 PM, Christian Tismer wrote:

I wanted to point a bling guy to the Python wiki:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Programmers/SimpleExamples#preview and when reading a little bit, I found the entry on multiline strings.

This entry?

Defining multiline strings

string = '''This is a string with embedded newlines. Also known as a tripled-quoted string. Whitespace at the beginning of lines is included, so the above line is indented but the others are not. '''

I found that example pretty contorted, because this is not a multiline string. Instead, there are multiple lines which define a single line string! Actually, the construct is even syntactically nothing else than a single line string which is handled by the parser, already.

That string has four (4) embedded '\n's -- that makes it multiline.

A multiline string is IMHO a string which value covers multiple lines, after whatever pre-processing was done. I don't think the given example is very helpful, but adds confusion.

And that string does cover multiple lines.

Where would I add such a complaint, usually? Or should I simply fix it?

Nothing broken here, move along, nothing to see...

-- Ethan

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