Writing a string (with new lines) in Python

Question

I have to write strings with newlines and a specific structure to files in Python. When I do

 stringtowrite = "abcd ||
                   efgh||
                   iklk"

f = open(save_dir + "/" +count+"_report.txt", "w")
f.write(stringtowrite)
f.close()

I'm getting this error:

SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal

How can I write the string as it is to a file without deleting the new lines?

Pixelmod · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-15 12:25:40Z

13

Have you tried to modify your string the following way:

stringtowrite = "abcd ||\nefgh||\niklk"

f = open(save_dir + os.path.sep +count+"_report.txt", "w")
f.write(stringtowrite)
f.close()

OR:

stringtowrite = """abcd ||
                   efgh||
                   iklk"""

edited Jun 15, 2017 at 12:25

Pixelmod

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answered Aug 16, 2011 at 19:00

Artsiom Rudzenka

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Comments

Peter V · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-16 18:58:39Z

12

The simplest thing is to use python's triple quotes (note the three single quotes)

stringtowrite = '''abcd ||
                   efgh||
                   iklk'''

any string literal with triple quotes will continue on a following line. You can use ''' or """.

By the way, if you have

a = abcd
b = efgh
c = iklk

I would recommend the following:

stringtowrite = "%s||\n%s||\n%s" % (a,b,c)

as a more readable and pythonic way of doing it.

answered Aug 16, 2011 at 18:58

Peter V

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3 Comments

SteveMc Over a year ago

Note you'll also get the leading whitespace using this.

Bryce Siedschlaw Over a year ago

Otherwise you'd have to do it all in one line: 'abcd ||\nefgh||\niklk'

Peter V Over a year ago

Yep. I anticipate some further data format debugging for the author once this works. :)

Wooble · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-16 19:02:36Z

5

You can add the \ character to the end of each line, which indicates that the line is continued on the next line, you can triple-quote the string instead of single-quoting it, or you can replace the literal newlines in the string with \n.

answered Aug 16, 2011 at 19:02

Wooble

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1 Comment

FKEinternet Over a year ago

Putting a line continuation `\` at the end of the line will not embed a newline - it will just append the text from the next line.

miku · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-16 19:01:27Z

4

You can write newlines – \n – into your string.

stringtowrite = "abcd ||\nefgh||\niklk"

answered Aug 16, 2011 at 19:01

miku

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2 Comments

Sapphire Over a year ago

Actually, the method from which I get an array of strings spits out strings with newlines. How do I replace each newline in the array of strings with '\' ?

miku Over a year ago

If there are already newlines, there would be no need to add them - but then, I don't know your setup.

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