replace all "\" with "\\" python

Question

Does anyone know how replace all \ with \\ in python? Ive tried:

re.sub('\','\\',string)

But it screws it up because of the escape sequence. does anyone know the awnser to my question?

Answer 1

You just need to escape the backslashes in your strings: (also there's no need for regex stuff)

>>> s = "cats \\ dogs"
>>> print s
cats \ dogs
>>> print s.replace("\\", "\\\\")
cats \\ dogs

Answer 2

you should do:

re.sub(r'\\', r'\\\\', string)

As r'\' is not a valid string

BTW, you should always use raw (r'') strings with regex as many things are done with backslashes.