Include escape sequence in a string sequence in Python 3

Question

I am trying to send data to a thermal printer directly.

I have the following test data:

raw_data = bytes ("This is a test", "utf-8")

I would like to include two initial bytes to build the sequence ESC+@ (character ESC is ASCII 27) to initialize the printer.

How shall I do that?

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-03 06:00:04Z

2

Use \033 to represent the ESC character.

raw_data = bytes ("\033@This is a test", "utf-8")

answered Sep 2, 2019 at 21:41

Barmar

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2 Comments

Since when is \e escape? When I try this, I just get two bytes: \ and e. Do I need a newer Python or something?

Oops, it's \e in lots of other languages, but not Python. You have to use octal or hex code.