How to include escape char in Python string

Question

I'm trying to build a string dynamically with the following code

output = "".join(["network", "\", "account"])

The escaped result should be something like network\account

How can do this in Python3 without running into this errors

File "<stdin>", line 1
"".join(["network", "\", "account"])
                                ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Answer 1

Raw strings is another way (someone already posted an answer using an escape character).

Precede the quotes with an r:

r'network\account

Edit:

I realise that this doesn't actually work with your example using a single backslash,

I had posted:

output = "".join(["network", r"\", "account"])

but according to Python docs.

Even in a raw literal, quotes can be escaped with a backslash, but the backslash remains in the result; for example, r"\"" is a valid string literal consisting of two characters: a backslash and a double quote; r"\" is not a valid string literal (even a raw string cannot end in an odd number of backslashes). Specifically, a raw literal cannot end in a single backslash (since the backslash would escape the following quote character).

https://docs.python.org/3/reference/lexical_analysis.html?highlight=raw%20strings

Answer 2

Escape the backslash:

output = "".join(["network", "\\", "account"])

Answer 3

In Python strings, the backslash "\" is a special character, also called the "escape" character, so use '\\' for "escape" character

output = "".join(["network", "\\", "account"])