The print() function - the escape and newline characters 1

The print() function - the escape and newline characters

We've modified the code again. Look at it carefully. 

There are two very subtle changes - we've inserted a strange pair of characters inside the rhyme. They look like this: \n. 

Interestingly, while you can see two characters, Python sees one. 

the backslash (\_ has a very special meaning when used inside strings - this is called the escape character.

The word escape should be understood specifically - it means that the series of characters in the string escapes for the moment (a very short moment) to introduce a special inclusion. 

In other words, the backslash doesn't mean anything in itself, but is only a kind of announcement, that the next character after the backslash has a different meaning too. 

The letter n placed after the backslash comes from the word newline.

Both the backslash and the n form a special symbol named a newline character, which urges the console to start a new output line

Run the code. Your console should now look like this: 

As you can see, two newlines appear in the nursery rhyme, the places where the \n have been used.