We need to specify that we want to replace a string that contains a single backslash. We cannot write that as "\", because the backslash is escaping the intended closing double-quote. We also cannot use a raw string literal for this: r"\" does not work.

Instead, we simply escape the backslash using another backslash:

result = string.replace("\\","")

r/learnpython is probably a better subreddit for these kinds of questions.

Having said that, your first example actually works, try:

print("apple".replace('l', '\\'))

You can use the string .replace() method along with rawstring.

Python 2:

>>> print r'pictures\12761_1.jpg'.replace("\\", "/")
pictures/12761_1.jpg

Python 3:

>>> print(r'pictures\12761_1.jpg'.replace("\\", "/"))
pictures/12761_1.jpg

There are two things to notice here:

• Firstly to read the text as a drawstring by putting r before the string. If you don't give that, there will be a Unicode error here.
• And also that there were two backslashes given inside the replace method's first argument. The reason for that is that backslash is a literal used with other letters to work as an escape sequence. Now you might wonder what is an escape sequence. So an escape sequence is a sequence of characters that doesn't represent itself when used inside string literal or character. It is composed of two or more characters starting with a backslash. Like '\n' represents a newline and similarly there are many. So to escape backslash itself which is usually an initiation of an escape sequence, we use another backslash to escape it.

I know the second part is bit confusing but I hope it made some sense.

The text does not contain a backslash to remove. The backslash present in text actually escapes the apostrophe.

If you try print text[0] , you will get an output as:

with General Atlantic, Newman's Own Foundation, The Pershing Square Foundation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and Echoing Green announced a three-year partnership which will invest

Which has no backslash.

The reason you get the backslash is probably because it returns the representation. [ probably since even python shell does not return the backslash unless you explicitly call the repr(text[0]) function, atleast not in your case. ].

Incase you want to remove that escaping backslash from the representation and convert it back to a string ( though I find it pointless to do so ) you can try this:

repr(text[0]).replace('\\','')[1:-1]

EDIT: When working with regex convert your r'some text' to str(r'some text'). That should work.

# This string contains no backslashes; it's a single linebreak.
mystr = "\n"
# Hence this does nothing:
mystr.replace("\\", 'x') 
# and this is False:
print(mystr.startswith('\\'))

# This is a syntax error because the \ escapes the '
print(ord('\')) #EOL Err

# This is still False because there's still no '\\` in mystr
print(ord(mystr[0]) == ord('\\')) #False

If you use the \\ escape consistently you get the results you're looking for:

# This string contains a backslash and an n.
mystr = '\\n'
# Now this prints "xn":
print(mystr.replace('\\', 'x'))
# and this is True:
print(mystr.startswith('\\'))

# This prints 92
print(ord('\\'))

# This is also True:
print(ord(mystr[0]) == ord('\\'))

You can define mystr as a raw string (making '\n' a literal \ followed by n), but this doesn't work for strings like '\' because even in a raw string, the \ escapes any quotation mark immediately following it. For a string ending in \ you still need to use a normal escape sequence.

mystr = r'\n'
print(mystr.replace('\\', 'x'))
print(mystr.startswith('\\'))

print(ord('\\'))
print(ord(mystr[0]) == ord('\\'))

Your \ is hiding the closing " so you need to use \\ - but python shouldn't care about the slashes in the path.

No need to use str.replace or string.replace here, just convert that string to a raw string:

>>> strs = r"C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\20130216"
           ^
           |
       notice the 'r'

Below is the repr version of the above string, that's why you're seeing \\ here. But, in fact the actual string contains just '\' not \\.

>>> strs
'C:\\Users\\Josh\\Desktop\\20130216'

>>> s = r"f\o"
>>> s            #repr representation
'f\\o'
>>> len(s)   #length is 3, as there's only one `'\'`
3

But when you're going to print this string you'll not get '\\' in the output.

>>> print strs
C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\20130216

If you want the string to show '\\' during print then use str.replace:

>>> new_strs = strs.replace('\\','\\\\')
>>> print new_strs
C:\\Users\\Josh\\Desktop\\20130216

repr version will now show \\\\:

>>> new_strs
'C:\\\\Users\\\\Josh\\\\Desktop\\\\20130216'

why not use string.replace()?

>>> s = 'some \\\\ doubles'
>>> print s
some \\ doubles
>>> print s.replace('\\\\', '\\')
some \ doubles

Or with "raw" strings:

>>> s = r'some \\ doubles'
>>> print s
some \\ doubles
>>> print s.replace('\\\\', '\\')
some \ doubles

Since the escape character is complicated, you still need to escape it so it does not escape the '