string - Unknown python expression filename=r'/path/to/file'

Question

I found this potentially very useful python script, but came across these expressions which I've never seen before:

inputfilename = r'/path/to/infile'
outputfilename = r'/path/to/outfile'

I can't find a way to search for it. what does the r'...' do?

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

The r'..' string modifier causes the '..' string to be interpreted literally. That means, r'MyPathWithoutEscaping' will evaluate to 'MyPathWithoutEscaping' - without causing the backslash to escape characters. The prior is equivalent to 'My\Path\Without\Escaping' string, but without the raw modifier.

Note: The string cannot end with an odd number of backslashes, i.e r'BadStringExample' is not a correct string.