How does Python's triple-quote string work?

Question

How should this function be changed to return "123456"?

def f():     s = """123     456"""     return s 

UPDATE: Everyone, the question is about understanding how to not have \t or whatever when having a multiline comment, not how to use the re module.

Answer 1

Don't use a triple-quoted string when you don't want extra whitespace, tabs and newlines.

Use implicit continuation, it's more elegant:

def f():     s = ('123'          '456')     return s 

Answer 2

def f():   s = """123\ 456"""   return s 

Don't indent any of the blockquote lines after the first line; end every line except the last with a backslash.