Python 正则表达式 - r 前缀

Question

如果不使用 r 前缀，谁能解释为什么下面的示例 1 有效？我认为在使用转义序列时必须使用 r 前缀。示例 2 和示例 3 证明了这一点。

# example 1
import re
print (re.sub('\s+', ' ', 'hello     there      there'))
# prints 'hello there there' - not expected as r prefix is not used

# example 2
import re
print (re.sub(r'(\b\w+)(\s+\1\b)+', r'\1', 'hello     there      there'))
# prints 'hello     there' - as expected as r prefix is used

# example 3
import re
print (re.sub('(\b\w+)(\s+\1\b)+', '\1', 'hello     there      there'))
# prints 'hello     there      there' - as expected as r prefix is not used

Answer 1

因为 \ 只有在它们是有效的转义序列时才开始转义序列。

>>> '\n'
'\n'
>>> r'\n'
'\\n'
>>> print '\n'


>>> print r'\n'
\n
>>> '\s'
'\\s'
>>> r'\s'
'\\s'
>>> print '\s'
\s
>>> print r'\s'
\s

Unless an 'r' or 'R' prefix is present, escape sequences in strings are interpreted according to rules similar to those used by Standard C. The recognized escape sequences are:

Escape Sequence   Meaning Notes
\newline  Ignored  
\\    Backslash (\)    
\'    Single quote (')     
\"    Double quote (")     
\a    ASCII Bell (BEL)     
\b    ASCII Backspace (BS)     
\f    ASCII Formfeed (FF)  
\n    ASCII Linefeed (LF)  
\N{name}  Character named name in the Unicode database (Unicode only)  
\r    ASCII Carriage Return (CR)   
\t    ASCII Horizontal Tab (TAB)   
\uxxxx    Character with 16-bit hex value xxxx (Unicode only) 
\Uxxxxxxxx    Character with 32-bit hex value xxxxxxxx (Unicode only) 
\v    ASCII Vertical Tab (VT)  
\ooo  Character with octal value ooo
\xhh  Character with hex value hh

永远不要依赖原始字符串作为路径文字，因为原始字符串有一些相当特殊的内部工作原理，众所周知，它们会咬人的屁股:

When an "r" or "R" prefix is present, a character following a backslash is included in the string without change, and all backslashes are left in the string. For example, the string literal r"\n" consists of two characters: a backslash and a lowercase "n". String quotes can be escaped with a backslash, but the backslash remains in the string; for example, r"\"" is a valid string literal consisting of two characters: a backslash and a double quote; r"\" is not a valid string literal (even a raw string cannot end in an odd number of backslashes). Specifically, a raw string cannot end in a single backslash (since the backslash would escape the following quote character). Note also that a single backslash followed by a newline is interpreted as those two characters as part of the string, not as a line continuation.

为了更好地说明最后一点:

>>> r'\'
SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal
>>> r'\''
"\\'"
>>> '\'
SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal
>>> '\''
"'"
>>> 
>>> r'\\'
'\\\\'
>>> '\\'
'\\'
>>> print r'\\'
\\
>>> print r'\'
SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal
>>> print '\\'
\