Question

I have a string

‘”No, thanks, Mom,” I said, “I don’t know how long it will take.”‘

I assign it to a variable foobar

>>> foobar = """'"No, thanks, Mom," I said, "I don't know how long it will take."'"""

But when I print I get

>>> foobar
'\'"No, thanks, Mom," I said, "I don\'t know how long it will take."\''
>>>

How can I exactly print the same value of the string as I have assigned it?

Answer 1

To print a string, use … print:

>>> foobar = """'"No, thanks, Mom," I said, "I don't know how long it will take."'"""
>>> print(foobar)
'"No, thanks, Mom," I said, "I don't know how long it will take."'

If you just enter foobar, Python prints the representation of foobar. The representation is designed to be valid Python code and/or useful for debugging, and is not meant to be outputted to users.