title: I know of f-strings, but what are r-strings? Are there others?
body: <p>I started learning python for the first time in an accelerated course on data science a few weeks ago and we were introduced early on to f-strings.</p>
  
  <p>The simple code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>name = 'Tim'
  print(f'There are some who call me {name}...')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>outputs the string "There are some who call me Tim..."</p>
  
  <p>Through my browsing of various packages out of curiosity, I came upon pages like <a href="https://matplotlib.org/users/mathtext.html" rel="noreferrer">this one</a> detailing a function you can call in matplotlib to render $\LaTeX$-like expressions within the generated images.  In the example code they use something similar to f-strings but with an r instead of an f.</p>
  
  <pre><code>import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  plt.title(r'$\alpha &gt; \beta$')
  plt.show()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The resulting (<em>otherwise empty</em>) graph has a title using text which has been formatted similarly to how one would expect using MathJax or $\LaTeX$ with a greek character alpha and a greek character beta.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>My questions are the following:</p>
  
  <p>What precisely is an r-string and how does it compare to an f-string?  Are r-strings specifically used for matplotlib's mathtext and usetex?</p>
  
  <p>Apart from f-strings and r-strings, are there any other notable similar string variants or alternates that I should familiarize myself with or be made aware of?</p>