How to print special characters in Python

Did you know that Python 3 introduced support for Unicode characters as identifiers? This means that you can now use Unicode characters such as Greek letters and emojis as variable names, function names, and other identifiers in your Python code.

Take a look, mate.

You can define a variable using a Greek letter such as “Δ” (Delta) as follows:

Δ = 10
print(Δ)

This will output 10, which is the value of the variable Δ.

Similarly, you can define a function using an emoji such as “🐍” (snake) as follows:

def 🐍():
    print("Hello from the snake function!")

🐍()

This feature of Python can be useful for creating code that is more expressive and easier to read, especially for scientific and mathematical applications where Greek letters and symbols are commonly used.

However, it’s important to use this feature judiciously and not overuse it to avoid confusing other programmers who may not be familiar with the specific Unicode characters used in the code.

Back to the business.

How do you print special characters in Python?

To print special characters in Python, there are several approaches that you can use depending on the type of special character you want to print. Here are the most common methods:

1. Using escape characters: You can use a backslash (\) followed by a character to print special characters. For example, to print a tab character, you can use “\t” as follows: print("Hello\tWorld")
2. Using Unicode characters: Python supports Unicode characters, which can be used to print special characters. For example, to print a heart symbol, you can use the Unicode code point for the symbol as follows: print("\u2665")
3. Using the chr() function: The chr() function takes an integer as an argument and returns the corresponding Unicode character. For example, to print a heart symbol using the chr() function, you can do the following: print(chr(9829))
4. Using raw strings: If you want to print a string as-is without any special characters being interpreted, you can use a raw string. A raw string is created by placing an ‘r’ before the opening quote of a string. For example, to print a Windows path with backslashes, you can use a raw string as follows: print(r'C:\Users\Username\Desktop')
5. Using the ord() function: The ord() function takes a Unicode character as an argument and returns its corresponding integer code point. For example, to print the integer code point of the heart symbol, you can do the following: print(ord('♥'))

# 1: Print special characters using escape characters in Python

Escape characters are special characters that are preceded by a backslash (\) in a string. They are used to represent special characters that cannot be typed directly, such as newline characters (\n), tab characters (\t), and quotation marks (” or ‘).

To print a special character using an escape character, you simply include the escape character followed by the special character in the string.

Here are some examples of how to print special characters using escape characters in Python:

Print a tab character

# Print a tab character
print("Hello\tWorld")

# Output: "Hello    World" with a tab space between "Hello" and "World".

Print a newline character

# Print a newline character
print("Hello\nWorld")

# Output: "Hello" and "World" on separate lines.

Print a backslash character

# Print a backslash character
print("C:\\Users\\Username\\Desktop")

# Output: "C:\Users\Username\Desktop" with backslashes.

Print quotation mark characters

# Print a quotation mark
print("She said, \"Hello!\"")

# Output: "She said, "Hello!"" with double quotes.

In these examples, we use various escape characters to print special characters in strings. The backslash is used to escape other characters that would normally have a special meaning in Python, such as the backslash itself or the quotation marks. The output of each example shows the special characters being printed correctly in the string.

#2: Using Unicode characters to print special characters in Python

Unicode is a standard for encoding, representing, and handling text in various writing systems around the world.

In Python, you can use Unicode characters to print special characters that are not available on your keyboard or in the ASCII character set.

Python 3 supports Unicode natively, so you can use Unicode characters directly in your code.

To print a Unicode character, you need to know its code point.

A code point is a unique number assigned to each character in the Unicode standard. For example, the code point for the heart symbol (♥) is U+2665.

To print the heart symbol in Python using its code point, you can use the escape sequence “\u” followed by the four-digit hexadecimal code point. So to print the heart symbol, you can use the string “\u2665” like this:

print("\u2665")

This will output the heart symbol (♥).

You can also use Unicode characters directly in string literals, as long as you indicate that the string is encoded in Unicode by using the ‘u’ prefix before the opening quote.

For example, to print a string containing the heart symbol, you can do the following:

print(u"I \u2665 Python")

This will output “I ♥ Python”.

You can find the code points for Unicode characters in various Unicode charts, such as the Unicode Character Table on the Unicode Consortium’s website. Once you have the code point, you can use it to print the corresponding character using the “\u” escape sequence or directly in a Unicode string.

Using Unicode characters to print special characters in Python is useful when you need to print characters that are not available on your keyboard or in the ASCII character set.

It can also make your code more readable and expressive by allowing you to use characters from various writing systems in your code.

#3: How to use chr() function to print special characters in Python

The chr() function in Python takes an integer Unicode code point as an argument and returns the corresponding character.

This means that you can use chr() to print special characters in Python by passing the integer Unicode code point of the character to the function.

Here’s an example of how to use chr() to print the alpha symbol (𝝰) in Python:

 print(chr(120688))

In this example, chr(120688) returns the heart symbol character (𝝰) because 120688 is the Unicode code point for the mathematical alpha symbol.

You can use the ord() function to get the Unicode code point of a character. Here’s an example of how to use range() and chr() together to print the first 10 uppercase letters of the Greek alphabet:

for i in range(913, 923):
    print(chr(i))

Results:

In this example, the range() function generates a sequence of integers from 913 to 922, which are the Unicode code points for the uppercase letters of the Greek alphabet from Alpha (Α) to Kappa (Κ).

The chr() function is called with each integer in the range to get the corresponding character, and the characters are printed to the console.

You can also use chr() to print special characters in a loop or as part of a larger string. Here’s an example of how to use chr() to print a series of smiley face emojis in Python:

for i in range(5):
    print("Smiley face #" + str(i+1) + ": " + chr(128515))

Results:

In this example, chr(128515) returns the smiley face emoji character (😃) because 128515 is the Unicode code point for the character. The loop prints five smiley faces with a numbered label for each one.

Overall, the chr() function is a useful tool for printing special characters in Python, especially if you have the Unicode code point for the character you want to print.

#4: How to print special characters in Python using the ord() function

The ord() function in Python is used to get the Unicode code point of a character. The code point is an integer value that represents the unique number associated with a Unicode character.

The ord() function takes a single argument which is a string of length 1 containing the Unicode character for which you want to find the code point. The function then returns the integer value representing the code point of the character.

To print a special character in Python using the ord() function, you can first use the ord() function to get the code point of the character, and then use the chr() function to convert the code point back into a character.

Alternatively, you can print the code point directly as an integer.

Here’s an example of how to use the ord() function to print the code point of the “A” character:

print(ord("A"))

Output

65

In this example, the ord() function is used to get the Unicode code point of the “A” character, which is 65. The print statement then outputs this value as an integer.

Once you have the code point, you can use the chr() function to print it in Python as follows:

print(chr(65))

Here’s another example of how to use the ord() function to print the code point of a special character, in this case, the heart symbol (♥):

print(ord("♥"))

Output:

9832

In this example, the ord() function is used to get the Unicode code point of the heart symbol, which is 9829. The print statement then outputs this value as an integer.

Then, I can use this integer as the code point for the heart symbol and print it using the chr() function as follows:

print(chr(9829))

It’s important to note that the ord() function only works with strings of length 1, so you cannot pass a string with multiple characters to this function.

If you need to get the code points of multiple characters at once, you can use a loop to iterate over the string and call the ord() function for each character individually.

#5: How to print special characters in Python using raw strings

Here are the actionable steps to print special characters in Python using raw strings:

1. Decide on the special character you want to print and determine if it requires special treatment, such as backslashes or quotes, to be printed correctly.
2. Define the string that contains the special character using a raw string by placing an ‘r’ before the opening quote of the string.
3. Print the string using the print() function.

Here’s an example that shows how to print a string that contains a backslash using a raw string:

# Define a string that contains a backslash using a raw string
my_string = r'C:\Users\Username\Desktop'

# Print the string
print(my_string)

The output:

C:\Users\Username\Desktop

In this example, the backslashes are treated as literal characters and are not interpreted as escape characters.

Without the raw string, the backslashes would need to be escaped using additional backslashes or by using a combination of single and double quotes to define the string.

Otherwise, Python will throw syntax errors.

Overall, using a raw string in Python is a convenient way to print special characters and strings as-is without worrying about escaping characters or string delimiters.

How to write special characters to a text file in Python?

To write special characters to a text file in Python, you need to ensure that the file is opened in the appropriate encoding that supports the special characters you want to write.

Here are the actionable steps to write special characters to a text file in Python:

Step 1: Open the file using the open() function

Open the file using the open() function, which is a function used to open a file in Python. You need to specify the filename and the mode in which the file will be opened.

For example, to open a file named “output.txt” in write mode, you can do the following:

f = open("output.txt", "w")

Step 2: Set the encoding of the file

You need to specify the encoding of the file to ensure that it supports the special characters you want to write.

The most common encoding for text files is UTF-8, which supports a wide range of Unicode characters. To set the encoding of the file, you can pass the encoding parameter to the open() function as follows:

f = open("output.txt", "w", encoding="utf-8")

Step 3: Write your special characters to the file

To write special characters to the file, you can use the write() method of the file object.

For example, to write the heart symbol (♥) to the file, you can do the following:

f.write("I love Python ♥")

Step 4: Close the file

As a general rule, you should always close file resources once opened in your Python file.

After you finish writing to the file, you should close it using the close() method of the file object. This ensures that any changes you made to the file are saved and that the resources used by the file are released.

Here’s how you will close the file you opened earlier:

f.close()

So, to open a file and write special characters to it, you will need to have a typical Python file that looks like this:

# Open the file in write mode with UTF-8 encoding
f = open("output.txt", "w", encoding="utf-8")

# Write the special characters to the file
f.write("I love Python ♥")

# Close the file
f.close()

After running this code, the file “output.txt” should contain the text “I love Python ♥” with the heart symbol (♥) included.

Note that if you want to write special characters to a file that will be opened in other applications or on other systems, you may need to use a different encoding depending on the requirements of those systems.

How to print special characters in Python without escape characters

In Python, you can print special characters without using escape characters by using raw strings or by encoding the string in a specific character encoding format.

Here’s a definitive answer with examples for both methods:

Method 1: Using raw strings

Raw strings are strings that are defined using a special prefix “r”. Raw strings ignore all escape characters and print the string as it is.

For example, to print a string that contains a backslash without escaping it, you can define the string as a raw string like this:

print(r'This is a raw string containing a backslash: \')

Output: This is a raw string containing a backslash: \

Method 2: Encoding the string in a specific character encoding format

You can encode the string in a specific character encoding format to print special characters without using escape characters.

For example, to print the euro symbol “€”, you can encode the string using the “utf-8” encoding format like this:

print('\u20AC'.encode('utf-8').decode('utf-8'))

Output: €

In this example, we first encode the special character using the “utf-8” encoding format using the encode() method. Then, we decode the encoded string using the decode() method to print the special character without using any escape character.

Note that the encoding format used should match the encoding format of the output device (e.g., console, file) that will display the special character.

These are two definitive ways to print special characters in Python without using escape characters.

Related Questions

How to print a new line in Python

Printing a new line in Python is a common task that you’ll encounter when writing programs. To print a new line in Python, you will need to use the escape character \n that is used to print a new line in Python.

Here’s a detailed step-by-step process on how to print a new line in Python:

Step 1: Write the string to print

Define the text string that you wish to print on the console or output to a new file.

Here is an example string that will require a new line, probably:

"This is the first line. This is the second line."

Step 2: Insert \n escape character at the location of the string you wish to break into a new line

Once you have your string, insert \n at the location you want to have a new line. For our example, here’s how you should insert the newline escape character:

"This is the first line.\nThis is the second line."

Step 3: Print your string

After you’ve defined the string that you want to print, you’ll need to pass it as an argument to the print() function. When the print() function is called, it will output the string to the console.

Alternatively, you can write the string to an opened file.

Here’s an example code snippet that demonstrates how to print a new line in Python:

print("This is the first line.\nThis is the second line.")

Output:

This is the first line.
This is the second line.

In this example, we use the print() function to output a string that contains a newline character \n. When the print() function is called, it outputs the string to the console and starts a new line after the first sentence.

Conclusion

Printing special characters in Python 3 will depend on the specific special character you want to print and the context in which you’re using it. Newline and tab special characters are easily printed using escape characters. Other special characters such as the heart symbol (♥) can be printed in Python using Unicode code points and the chr() function.