Python - Join with newline

Question

In the Python console, when I type:

>>> "\n".join(['I', 'would', 'expect', 'multiple', 'lines'])

Gives:

'I\nwould\nexpect\nmultiple\nlines'

Though I'd expect to see such an output:

I
would
expect
multiple
lines

What am I missing here?

Answer 1

The console is printing the representation, not the string itself.

If you prefix with print, you'll get what you expect.

See this question for details about the difference between a string and the string's representation. Super-simplified, the representation is what you'd type in source code to get that string.

Answer 2

You forgot to print the result. What you get is the P in RE(P)L and not the actual printed result.

In Py2.x you should so something like

>>> print "\n".join(['I', 'would', 'expect', 'multiple', 'lines']) I would expect multiple lines 

and in Py3.X, print is a function, so you should do

print("\n".join(['I', 'would', 'expect', 'multiple', 'lines'])) 

Now that was the short answer. Your Python Interpreter, which is actually a REPL, always displays the representation of the string rather than the actual displayed output. Representation is what you would get with the repr statement

>>> print repr("\n".join(['I', 'would', 'expect', 'multiple', 'lines'])) 'I\nwould\nexpect\nmultiple\nlines' 

Answer 3

You need to print to get that output.
You should do

>>> x = "\n".join(['I', 'would', 'expect', 'multiple', 'lines'])
>>> x                   # this is the value, returned by the join() function
'I\nwould\nexpect\nmultiple\nlines'
>>> print x    # this prints your string (the type of output you want)
I
would
expect
multiple
lines

Answer 4

You have to print it:

In [22]: "\n".join(['I', 'would', 'expect', 'multiple', 'lines'])
Out[22]: 'I\nwould\nexpect\nmultiple\nlines'

In [23]: print "\n".join(['I', 'would', 'expect', 'multiple', 'lines'])
I
would
expect
multiple
lines