I'm working on a school assigment for python/pandas and wanted to try out f strings as seemed very handy way of formatting.
After reading documentation, I realised that I couldn't use \n to format the output. For this code:
f"Shape of dataset:\n {df.shape} (rows, columns)\n"
I get this output:
Out[38]: 'Shape of dataset:\n (270792, 11) (rows, columns)\n'
Which is exactly what I expected after reading the docs.
But then, when I surround it by a print(), as such:
print(f"Shape of dataset:\n {df.shape} (rows, columns)\n")
I get it looking the way I wanted:
Shape of dataset:
(270792, 11) (rows, columns)
I know I could just use regular formatting as well, but I'm curious as to why this is. Is it that the f string component is ignored because of the print?
The following are some examples that illustrate the point that when you enter a string into a Python/IPython Repl, the repr form of the string is shown. It does not matter which string formatter you use(f-strings or .format()). However, when you print it, it gets formatted and escapes characters like newlines, tabs etc.
In [18]: f"a\nb\n"
Out[18]: 'a\nb\n'
In [19]: print(f"a\nb\n")
a
b
In [20]: f"a\tb\tc"
Out[20]: 'a\tb\tc'
In [21]: print(f"a\tb\tc")
a b c
In [22]: a = 1
In [23]: b=2
In [24]: "a={}\nb={}".format(a,b)
Out[24]: 'a=1\nb=2'
In [25]: print("a={}\nb={}".format(a,b))
a=1
b=2
In [26]: "a={}\tb={}".format(a,b)
Out[26]: 'a=1\tb=2'
In [27]: print("a={}\tb={}".format(a,b))
a=1 b=2
Python provides a repr() function that shows the printable representation of the object. All statements without the print above use this internally in the Python/IPython console. There is also the str() function that formats the object. Internally, when you print the string, str() is applied first that formats the string.
In [29]: print(repr(f"a\tb\tc"))
'a\tb\tc'
In [30]: print(str(f"a\tb\tc"))
a b c