Python 3 print to file with mix of " and ' in string

Question

I am creating an HTML output file using vanilla Python 3 and I wish to use the multi-tab layout (http://www.w3schools.com/howto/tryit.asp?filename=tryhow_js_tabs_close) to help organize my presentation.

When trying to print:

' <li><a href="#" class="tablinks active" onclick="openTab(event, 'Faults')">Faults</a></li>'

I run into a situation where I need to include (') and (") characters in the string. I have tried to only use (") characters inside the string and use (') to define the string, however this breaks the html functionality of the code.

If I use

'partial string {}Faults{} more string'.format("'","'")

I see this output:

'  <li><a href="#" class="tablinks active" onclick="openTab(event, \'Faults\')"><b>Faults</b></a></li>)'

Similarly if I attempt to join strings together,

b = '  <li><a href="#" class="tablinks active" onclick="openTab(event, '

c = "'Faults'"

d = ')"><b>Faults</b></a></li>)

('').join([b,c,d])

I get the exact same thing as my first attempt.

'  <li><a href="#" class="tablinks active" onclick="openTab(event, \'Faults\')"><b>Faults</b></a></li>)'

Is there any way to get around this issue while printing to a file?
Thank you.

Answer 1

' <li><a href="#" class="tablinks active" onclick="openTab(event, \'Faults\')">Faults</a></li>'

You need to escape single quotes in single quotes. If you write this to a file, it will be how you want it.

Or use ''' <li><a href="#" class="tablinks active" onclick="openTab(event, \'Faults\')">Faults</a></li>'''

Notice the triple quotes?

Interesting article about escaping in Python: Learn Python the hard way

Python 3 print to file with mix of " and ' in string

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