If statements and one line python scripts from command line

Question

Why do I receive a syntax error for the following one liner python code?

python -c \'import re; if True: print \"HELLO\";\'
  File \"\", line 1         


        

Answer 1

One option to work around this limitation is to specify the command with the $'string' format using the newline escape sequence \n.

python -c $'import re\nif True: print "HELLO";'

Note: this is supported by shells such as bash and zsh, but is not valid POSIX sh.

As mentioned by @slaadvak, there are some other workarounds here: Executing Python multi-line statements in the one-line command-line