(coded in hexadecimal) '\ \ \ '\ \ \ len( notice that python displays nonprintable characters in hexregardless of how they were specified you can freely combine absolute value escapes and the more symbolic escape types in table - the following string contains the characters "spam" tab and newlineand an absolute zero value character coded in hexs " \tp\na\ ms ' \tp\na\ mlen( print(ss this becomes more important to know when you process binary data files in python because their contents are represented as strings in your scriptsit' ok to process binary files that contain any sorts of binary byte values--when opened in binary modesfiles return strings of raw bytes from the external file (there' much more on files in and finallyas the last entry in table - impliesif python does not recognize the character after as being valid escape codeit simply keeps the backslash in the resulting stringx " :\py\codex ' :\\py\\codelen( keeps literally (and displays it as \\howeverunless you're able to commit all of table - to memory (and there are arguably better uses for your neurons!)you probably shouldn' rely on this behavior to code literal backslashes explicitly such that they are retained in your stringsdouble them up (\is an escape for one \or use raw stringsthe next section shows how raw strings suppress escapes as we've seenescape sequences are handy for embedding special character codes within strings sometimesthoughthe special treatment of backslashes for introducing escapes can lead to trouble it' surprisingly commonfor instanceto see python newcomers in classes trying to open file with filename argument that looks something like thismyfile open(' :\new\text dat'' ' string fundamentals