EOL while scanning string literal when trying to print a \ in python

Question

I'm trying to print just a \ using python and it seems like \ is some kind of reserved character or something. The code print "\" returns SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The backslash is used in Python for escape sequences. The proper way to do what you want is:

print "\\" # You need to escape the \ character

Answer 2

You can't end a string with a \ character since you could be asking it to escape the " character. You need to use "\\"