I can't make my program print newlines - Python

Question

The code is quite short so I put it here:

prog = []
# Reading the database from a file
try:
    with open('prog.txt') as f:
        progA = f.read().splitlines()
    for n in range(len(progA)/2):
        num = n*2
        prog.append([progA[num],progA[num+1]])
except:
    print "Something went wrong"
ch = 1
while True:
    nR = True
    print prog[ch-1][0]
    # Getting input
    while nR:
        inp = raw_input(">>> ")
        try:
            inp = int(inp)
            if str(inp) in prog[ch-1][1]:
                ch = inp
                nR = False
            else:
                print "You can't move to that channel"
        except:
            print "That isn't a number"

And the contents of the file (prog.txt):

DATABASE\nBrowse by entering the number you see after the link.\n> VERSION (3)
23
VERSION\nThis is the latest version.\n> Main menu (1)
1

The code works, but not as I wanted. It prints the newlines as it would be any other text, not with an actual new line.

\n in prog.txt is treated as normal character, thats why!

Prakash Pandey
– Prakash Pandey

2015-08-20 17:42:39 +00:00
Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 17:42 — Prakash Pandey
– Prakash Pandey, Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 17:42

TigerhawkT3 · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-20 17:42:51Z

1

If you want newline characters in your database file, use actual newline characters, created with the Enter key. If your file contains the character \ followed by the character n, those characters will be interpreted literally. Either create a database file with actual newlines, or preprocess it to replace the literal \n with an actual newline, with .replace('\\n', '\n').

answered Aug 20, 2015 at 17:42

TigerhawkT3

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Comments

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-20 17:54:25Z

0

The \n is not converted to a real newline when you read it from a file. Compare

>>> print "foo\nbar"
foo
bar
>>> print raw_input()
foo\nbar
foo\nbar

\n is something that is processed by Python when creating str objects from string literals.

edited Aug 20, 2015 at 17:54

answered Aug 20, 2015 at 17:43

chepner

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