Why can't Python's raw string literals end with a single backslash?

Question

Technically, any odd number of backslashes, as described in the documentation.

>>> r\'\\\'
  File \"\", line 1
    r\'\\\'
       ^
Syn         


        

Answer 1

Another trick is to use chr(92) as it evaluates to "\".

I recently had to clean a string of backslashes and the following did the trick:

CleanString = DirtyString.replace(chr(92),'')

I realize that this does not take care of the "why" but the thread attracts many people looking for a solution to an immediate problem.