Why am I getting \\n within the strings that I import from a text file into a list?-CodePudding

I have a text file which contains the questions that I want to be asked in a quiz that I am trying to code in Python. I want these questions to appear as follows:

Multiple choice question?
(a) Option 1
(b) Option 2
(c) Option 3

As such, the question string is written out as follows:

"1. Multiple choice question?\n(a) Option 1\a(b) Option 2\n(c) Option 3\n\n"

These strings are stored in a text file, so that I can change them or add to them

I then use the following code to import these strings into a list in Python:

with open("questions.txt") as file_in:
    questions = []
    for question in file_in:
        questions.append(question)

However, when I then:

print(questions)

I get:

['1. What is seven squared?\\n(a) 47\\n(b) 49\\n(c) 59\\n\\n\n', '2. What is the square root of 121?\\n(a) Nine\\n(b) Ten\\n(c) Eleven\\n\\n\n', '3. If a cube has a volume of 1000 cm^2, how long is each side?\\n(a) 6cm \\n(b) 8cm\\n(c) 10cm\\n\\n\n', '4. What is 347 minus 298?\\n(a) 59\\n(b) 49\\n(c) 69\\n\\n\n', '5. What is 22 x 11?\\n(a) 231\\n(b) 131\\n(c) 341\\n\\n\n']

i.e. extra \ characters have been added during the import, which means when I use these strings in my quiz, I see all of the \n code which is supposed to be formatting the question. I just want to import the strings exactly as they are in the text file, without the 'treatment' of \n resulting in

"\\n"

(two backslash ns)

CodePudding user response：

Firstly, read Why do backslashes appear twice? In short, Python uses backslashes to start escape sequences, so '\n' represents a newline and '\\' represents a backslash itself.

Now, I think the main problem here is conceptual. Reading a file is not the same as importing it. Reading means treating it as text, while importing means treating it as code.

I think the best solution here is a middle ground: structured data* like JSON or CSV. Here's how to do it in JSON:

questions.json

[
  "1. Multiple choice question?\n(a) Option 1\n(b) Option 2\n(c) Option 3\n\n"
]

tmp.py

import json

with open('questions.json') as f:
    questions = json.load(f)  # Parse JSON into data

print(questions)

Output

['1. Multiple choice question?\n(a) Option 1\n(b) Option 2\n(c) Option 3\n\n']

* I'm not sure this exactly the right term for it

CodePudding user response：

For a list named "questions", you can just do

questions = open("questions.txt").readlines()