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Asked: 2026-06-09T12:52:15+00:00

Python keeps returning a string with a broken character. python test = re.sub(‘handle(.*?)’, ‘<verse

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Python keeps returning a string with a broken character.

python

test = re.sub('handle(.*?)', '<verse osisID="lol">\1</verse>', 'handle a bunch of random text here.')
print test

what I want

<verse osisID="lol">a bunch of random text here.</verse>

what i am getting

<verse osisID="lol">*broken character*</verse>a bunch of random text here.
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You should either escape the \ character or use a r'' raw string:

    >>> re.sub('handle(.*?)', r'<verse osisID="lol">\1</verse>', 'handle a bunch of random text here.')
'<verse osisID="lol"></verse> a bunch of random text here.'

    Without the r'' raw string literal, backslashes are interpreted as escape codes. You can double the backslash as well:

    >>> '\1'
'\x01'
>>> '\\1'
'\\1'
>>> r'\1'
'\\1'
>>> print r'\1'
\1

    Note that you replace just the word handle there, the .*? pattern matches 0 characters at minimum. Remove the question mark and it’ll match your expected output:

    >>> re.sub('handle(.*)', r'<verse osisID="lol">\1</verse>', 'handle a bunch of random text here.')
'<verse osisID="lol"> a bunch of random text here.</verse>'
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