Latex command \bar not working properly in Python docstring

Question

I have a function with a docstring as follows,

def func(x):

    '''Boring function

    Notes
    -----
    Let :math:`\bar{x}_k = \sum_{i=1}^{n_k}x_{ik}`,
    '''

    return x

But the \bar command in Latex renders as "ar",

Answer 1

Python is interpreting the backslashes. You need to pass the backslashes through so LaTeX can interpret them; you should use a raw string to do so:

def func(x):

    # Note the r!
    r'''Boring function

    Notes
    -----
    Let :math:`\bar{x}_k = \sum_{i=1}^{n_k}x_{ik}`,
    '''