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Escape a console string containing a path with "\r" (python)

I need to send the following commands to a busybox device via a serial port:
SBC1000 > setenv serverip '192.168.128.100'
SBC1000 > setenv fsfile '1k\root.jffs2-128k'
SBC1000 > saveenv
I can escape the single quotes of the first line without a problem using a backslash:
cmd = 'setenv serverip \'192.168.128.100\''
I've tried various combinations of backslashes for the second line, but couldn't get the 1k\root part to escape properly. I believe it is being interpreted as a return. I tried double and triple escape with no success.
I finally stumbled upon using
cmd = 'setenv fsfile \'1k\\\u0072oot.jffs2-128k\''
to include the \r ( not a return ) for my string.
Is there a more readable way to include this \r ( not a return ) pattern in my string?

The solution was to use double-quotes " " as suggested by John Szakmeister.
I discovered that the command string was being passed to a function inside a private class based on pexpect-serial.
My guess is that my string was being evaluated by pexpect in a greedy way. By using a distinct delimiter, the problem was overcome.

Exporting multiple csv files with dynamic naming

I created about 200 csv files in Python and now need to download them all.
I created the files from a single file using:
g = df.groupby("col")
for n,g in df.groupby('col'):
g.to_csv(n+'stars'+'.csv')
When I try to use this same statement to export to my machine I get a syntax error and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong:
g = df.groupby("col")
for n,g in df.groupby('col'):
g.to_csv('C:\Users\egagne\Downloads\'n+'stars'+'.csv'')
Error:
File "<ipython-input-27-43a5bfe55259>", line 3
g.to_csv('C:\Users\egagne\Downloads\'n+'stars'+'.csv'')
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
I'm in Jupyter lab, so I can download each file individually but I really don't want to have to do that.

You're possibly mixing up integers and strings, and the use of backslash in literals is dangerous anyway. Consider using the following
import os
inside the loop
f_name = os.path.join('C:', 'users', ' egagne', 'Downloads', str(n), 'stars.csv')
g.to_csv(f_name)
with os.path.join taking care of the backslashes for you.

g.to_csv('C:\Users\egagne\Downloads\'n+'stars'+'.csv'')
needs to be
g.to_csv('C:\\Users\\egagne\\Downloads\\'+n+'stars.csv').
There were two things wrong -- the backslash is an escape character so if you put a ' after it, it will be treated as part of your string instead of a closing quote as you intended it. Using \\ instead of a single \ escapes the escape character so that you can include a backslash in your string.
Also, you did not pair your quotes correctly. n is a variable name but from the syntax highlighting in your question it is clear that it is part of the string. Similarly you can see that stars and .csv are not highlighted as part of a string, and the closing '' should be a red flag that something has gone wrong.
Edit: I addressed what is causing the problem but Ami Tavory's answer is the right one -- though you know this is going to run on windows it is a better practice to use os.path.join() with directory names instead of writing out a path in a string. str(n) is also the right way to go if you are at all unsure about the type of n.

How to open a file in its default program with python

I want to open a file in python 3.5 in its default application, specifically 'screen.txt' in Notepad.
I have searched the internet, and found os.startfile(path) on most of the answers. I tried that with the file's path os.startfile(C:\[directories n stuff]\screen.txt) but it returned an error saying 'unexpected character after line continuation character'. I tried it without the file's path, just the file's name but it still didn't work.
What does this error mean? I have never seen it before.
Please provide a solution for opening a .txt file that works.
EDIT: I am on Windows 7 on a restricted (school) computer.

It's hard to be certain from your question as it stands, but I bet your problem is backslashes.
[EDITED to add:] Or actually maybe it's something simpler. Did you put quotes around your pathname at all? If not, that will certainly not work -- but once you do, you will find that then you need the rest of what I've written below.
In a Windows filesystem, the backslash \ is the standard way to separate directories.
In a Python string literal, the backslash \ is used for putting things into the string that would otherwise be difficult to enter. For instance, if you are writing a single-quoted string and you want a single quote in it, you can do this: 'don\'t'. Or if you want a newline character, you can do this: 'First line.\nSecond line.'
So if you take a Windows pathname and plug it into Python like this:
os.startfile('C:\foo\bar\baz')
then the string actually passed to os.startfile will not contain those backslashes; it will contain a form-feed character (from the \f) and two backspace characters (from the \bs), which is not what you want at all.
You can deal with this in three ways.
You can use forward slashes instead of backslashes. Although Windows prefers backslashes in its user interface, forward slashes work too, and they don't have special meaning in Python string literals.
You can "escape" the backslashes: two backslashes in a row mean an actual backslash. os.startfile('C:\\foo\\bar\\baz')
You can use a "raw string literal". Put an r before the opening single or double quotes. This will make backslashes not get interpreted specially. os.startfile(r'C:\foo\bar\baz')
The last is maybe the nicest, except for one annoying quirk: backslash-quote is still special in a raw string literal so that you can still say 'don\'t', which means you can't end a raw string literal with a backslash.

The recommended way to open a file with the default program is os.startfile. You can do something a bit more manual using os.system or subprocess though:
os.system(r'start ' + path_to_file')
or
subprocess.Popen('{start} {path}'.format(
start='start', path=path_to_file), shell=True)
Of course, this won't work cross-platform, but it might be enough for your use case.

For example I created file "test file.txt" on my drive D: so file path is 'D:/test file.txt'
Now I can open it with associated program with that script:
import os
os.startfile('d:/test file.txt')

Print raw string from variable? (not getting the answers)

I'm trying to find a way to print a string in raw form from a variable. For instance, if I add an environment variable to Windows for a path, which might look like 'C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\', I know I can do:
print(r'C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\')
But I cant put an r in front of a variable.... for instance:
test = 'C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\'
print(rtest)
Clearly would just try to print rtest.
I also know there's
test = 'C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\'
print(repr(test))
But this returns 'C:\\Windows\\Users\x07lexb'
as does
test = 'C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\'
print(test.encode('string-escape'))
So I'm wondering if there's any elegant way to make a variable holding that path print RAW, still using test? It would be nice if it was just
print(raw(test))
But its not

I had a similar problem and stumbled upon this question, and know thanks to Nick Olson-Harris' answer that the solution lies with changing the string.
Two ways of solving it:
Get the path you want using native python functions, e.g.:
test = os.getcwd() # In case the path in question is your current directory
print(repr(test))
This makes it platform independent and it now works with .encode. If this is an option for you, it's the more elegant solution.
If your string is not a path, define it in a way compatible with python strings, in this case by escaping your backslashes:
test = 'C:\\Windows\\Users\\alexb\\'
print(repr(test))

In general, to make a raw string out of a string variable, I use this:
string = "C:\\Windows\Users\alexb"
raw_string = r"{}".format(string)
output:
'C:\\\\Windows\\Users\\alexb'

You can't turn an existing string "raw". The r prefix on literals is understood by the parser; it tells it to ignore escape sequences in the string. However, once a string literal has been parsed, there's no difference between a raw string and a "regular" one. If you have a string that contains a newline, for instance, there's no way to tell at runtime whether that newline came from the escape sequence \n, from a literal newline in a triple-quoted string (perhaps even a raw one!), from calling chr(10), by reading it from a file, or whatever else you might be able to come up with. The actual string object constructed from any of those methods looks the same.

I know i'm too late for the answer but for people reading this I found a much easier way for doing it
myVariable = 'This string is supposed to be raw \'
print(r'%s' %myVariable)

try this. Based on what type of output you want. sometime you may not need single quote around printed string.
test = "qweqwe\n1212as\t121\\2asas"
print(repr(test)) # output: 'qweqwe\n1212as\t121\\2asas'
print( repr(test).strip("'")) # output: qweqwe\n1212as\t121\\2asas

Get rid of the escape characters before storing or manipulating the raw string:
You could change any backslashes of the path '\' to forward slashes '/' before storing them in a variable. The forward slashes don't need to be escaped:
>>> mypath = os.getcwd().replace('\\','/')
>>> os.path.exists(mypath)
True
>>>

Just simply use r'string'. Hope this will help you as I see you haven't got your expected answer yet:
test = 'C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\'
rawtest = r'%s' %test

I have my variable assigned to big complex pattern string for using with re module and it is concatenated with few other strings and in the end I want to print it then copy and check on regex101.com.
But when I print it in the interactive mode I get double slash - '\\w'
as #Jimmynoarms said:
The Solution for python 3x:
print(r'%s' % your_variable_pattern_str)

Your particular string won't work as typed because of the escape characters at the end \", won't allow it to close on the quotation.
Maybe I'm just wrong on that one because I'm still very new to python so if so please correct me but, changing it slightly to adjust for that, the repr() function will do the job of reproducing any string stored in a variable as a raw string.
You can do it two ways:
>>>print("C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\\")
C:\Windows\Users\alexb\
>>>print(r"C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\\")
C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\\
Store it in a variable:
test = "C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\\"
Use repr():
>>>print(repr(test))
'C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\\'
or string replacement with %r
print("%r" %test)
'C:\\Windows\Users\alexb\\'
The string will be reproduced with single quotes though so you would need to strip those off afterwards.

To turn a variable to raw str, just use
rf"{var}"
r is raw and f is f-str; put them together and boom it works.

Replace back-slash with forward-slash using one of the below:
re.sub(r"\", "/", x)
re.sub(r"\", "/", x)

This does the trick
>>> repr(string)[1:-1]
Here is the proof
>>> repr("\n")[1:-1] == r"\n"
True
And it can be easily extrapolated into a function if need be
>>> raw = lambda string: repr(string)[1:-1]
>>> raw("\n")
'\\n'

i wrote a small function.. but works for me
def conv(strng):
k=strng
k=k.replace('\a','\\a')
k=k.replace('\b','\\b')
k=k.replace('\f','\\f')
k=k.replace('\n','\\n')
k=k.replace('\r','\\r')
k=k.replace('\t','\\t')
k=k.replace('\v','\\v')
return k

Here is a straightforward solution.
address = 'C:\Windows\Users\local'
directory ="r'"+ address +"'"
print(directory)
"r'C:\\Windows\\Users\\local'"

Escaping double-quotes vs. single-quotes

I noticed this code:
os.system("'{0}'".format(path))
and saw that some one had change it to this:
os.system("\"{0}\"".format(path))
I was wondering by changing it from single to double quotes what advantages does it give you?
Here is the original commit I pulled it from: https://github.com/mattn/legit/commit/84bd1b1796b749a7fb40e0b734d2de29ddc9d3d9

Not much really but rule of thumb use single quotes for literal assignments and prints. That way you will avoid printing things that shouldn't be there in the first place.
Single quotes are often useful because they are literal, and contain exactly the characters you type e.g. 'Hi there/' will actually print Hi there/
However, if you need something like 'Hi there /n', if you put it in single quotes it will give you literally 'Hi there /n' whereas double quotes will give you the result you need "Hi there" and then break line.

On windows, command line arguments are parsed by the program it-self, not shell or cmd.exe. And most of windows programs parse quoted strings with double quote in generally. python.exe is the same. On unix OSs, command line arguments are parsed by shell. And most of shells parse single/double quote both. of course, double quote expand $ or something which the shell can treat. However, path will not contains $.
This change is workaround to be possible to work legit on many OSs.