title: Using python's print("""\""")
body: <p>I'm currently reading the <a href="https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/introduction.html" rel="nofollow">python documentation</a> and I've stumbled upon this:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>String literals can span multiple lines. One way is using triple-quotes: """...""" or '''...'''. End of lines are automatically included in the string, but it’s possible to prevent this by adding a \ at the end of the line. The following example:  </p>
    
    <blockquote>
  <pre><code>print("""\
  Usage: thingy [OPTIONS]  
   -h                        Display this usage message
   -H hostname               Hostname to connect to     
  """)
  </code></pre>
    </blockquote>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I'm just not understanding what role <code>\</code> plays here. I know my question is a bit basic, but does anyone have an example that plays out differently depending on the use of <code>\</code> .</p>