Thank you for visiting! The new line character is used in Python to denote the end of a line and the beginning of a new one. You’ll need to know how to utilize it if you want to print output to the console and work with files.
This article will teach you how to:
- In Python, how to recognize a new line character.
- Use the new line character in strings and print statements as an example.
- How to write print statements that don’t use a new line character to end the string.
The New Line Character
Python’s new line character is: \n
There are two characters in it:
- A backslash.
- The letter n.
If you encounter this character in a string, it implies the current line has ended and a new line has begun immediately after it:
This character can also be used in f-strings:
>>> print(f”Hello\nWorld!”)
The New Line Character in Print Statements
By default, print statements append a newline character to the end of the string “behind the scenes.”
Like this:
According to the Python Documentation, this happens:
Because the end argument of the built-in print function is set to n, the string is appended with a new line character.
Tip: Append means “add to the end“.
This is how the function is defined:
Because the end has the value \n, it will be appended to the end of the string.
You won’t notice this if you simply use one print statement because only one line will be printed:
>>>print(“Hello, World!”) “Hello, World!”
However, if you use numerous print statements in a Python script one after the other, the result will be unpredictable.:
print(“Hello, World!”) print(“Hello, World!”) print(“Hello, World!”) print(“Hello, World!”)
Because \n has been added “behind the scenes” to the end of each line, the result will be printed in separate lines.:
Hello, World! Hello, World! Hello, World! Hello, World!
How to Print Without a New Line
We can override this default behavior by changing the value of the print function’s end parameter.
In this case, we’ll utilize the default value:
The output is printed on two lines.:
But if we customize the value of the end and set it to ” “
Instead of the new line character \n, space will be appended to the end of the string, resulting in the output of the two print statements being displayed on the same line:
Hello World
This can be used to print a series of values in a single line, as shown in this example:
The output is:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Tip: We use a conditional statement to ensure that the comma is not appended to the sequence’s last number.
This can also be used to print the values of an iterable in the same line:
The output is:
0 1 2 3 4
The New Line Character in Files
In files, the new line character \n is also present, but it is “hidden.” A new line character \n has been inserted when you notice a new line in a text file.
You can check this by reading the file with <file>.readlines(), like this:
with open("names.txt", "r") as f:
print(f.readlines())The output is:
[‘Gino\n’ , ‘Nora\n’ , ‘Talina\n’ , ‘Gerard’]
The first three lines of the text file conclude with a new line character, which operates “behind the scenes,” as you can see.
Note that the file’s last line is the only one that does not conclude with a new line character.
Read More:- Python Substring I How to Substring a String in Python
Summary:
- Inside the command prompt, the Python print() built-in function is used to print the provided text. Python print’s default behavior is to add a new line character at the end.
- From Python 3+, a new parameter called end= has been added to print(). The end= parameter removes the new line that is inserted by default while printing ().
- In Python 2.x, you can delete newlines from print Python by adding a comma (,) at the end of the print sentence.
- The built-in module sys can also be used to print no newlines in Python.
I sincerely hope you enjoyed and considered my article to be useful. In Python, you can now use the new line character.
