Unexpected character after line continuation character python как исправить

Sign Up for Our Newsletters

Subscribe to get notified of the latest articles. We will never spam you. Be a part of our ever-growing community.

By checking this box, you confirm that you have read and are agreeing to our terms of use regarding the storage of the data submitted through this form.

The Python line continuation character lets you continue a line of code on a new line in your program. The line continuation character cannot be followed by any value.

If you specify a character or statement after a line continuation character, you encounter the “SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character” error.

In this guide, we talk about what this error means and why it is raised. We walk through two examples of this error in action so you can learn how to use it in your code.

SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character

The line continuation character lets you write a long string over multiple lines of code. This character is useful because it makes code easier to read. The line continuation character is a backslash (“”).

Whereas it can be hard to follow a really long line of code, one line of code divided across multiple lines is easier to follow.

The line continuation character is commonly used to break up code or to write a long string across multiple lines of code:

url = "https://careerkarma.com" 
      "/blog/python-syntaxerror-unexpected-character-after" 
      "line-continuation-character"

We have broken up our string into three lines. This makes it easier to read our code.

Two scenarios when this error could be raised include:

• Using a backslash instead of a forward slash as a division operator
• Adding a new line to a string without enclosing the new line character in parenthesis

We’ll talk through each of these scenarios one-by-one.

Scenario #1: Division Using a Backslash

Here, we write a program that calculates a person’s body mass index (BMI). To start, we need to ask a user to insert their height and weight into a Python program:

height = input("What is your height? ")
weight = input("What is your weight? ")

Next, we calculate the user’s BMI. The formula for calculating a BMI value is:

“Kg” is a person’s weight in kilograms. “m²” is the height of a person squared. Translated into Python, the formula to calculate a BMI looks like this:

bmi = float(weight)  (float(height) * 2)
print("Your BMI is: " + str(bmi))

We convert the values of “weight” and “height” to floating point numbers so that we can perform mathematical functions on them.

We then print a user’s BMI to the console. We convert “bmi” to a string using the str() method so that we can concatenate it to the “Your BMI is: ” message. We round the value of “bmi” to two decimal places using the round() method.

Let’s run our code:

  File "main.py", line 4
	bmi = float(weight)  (float(height) * 2)
                                        	^
SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character

We’ve encountered an error. This is because we have used “” as the division operator instead of the “/” sign. We can fix our code by using the “/” division operator:

bmi = float(weight) / (float(height) * 2)
print("Your BMI is: " + str(round(bmi, 2)))

Our code returns:

What is your height? 1.70
What is your weight? 63
Your BMI is: 18.53

Our code has successfully calculated the BMI of a user.

Scenario #2: Using the New Line Character Incorrectly

Next, we write a program that writes a list of ingredients to a file. We start by defining a list of ingredients for a shortbread recipe:

ingredients = [
	"150g plain flour",
	"100g butter, chilled an cubed",
	"50g caster sugar"
]

Next, we open up a file called “shortbread_recipe.txt” to which we will write our list of ingredients:

with open("shortbread_recipe.txt", "w+") as ingredients_file:
	for i in ingredients:
		ingredients_file.write(i + n)

This code loops through every ingredient in the “ingredients” variable. Each ingredient is written to the ingredients file followed by a new line character in Python (“n”). This makes sure that each ingredient appears on a new line.

Let’s run our Python code:

  File "main.py", line 9
	ingredients_file.write(i + n)
                             	^
SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character

Our code returns an error. This is because we have not enclosed our new line character in quotation marks.

While the new line character is a special character, it must be enclosed within quotation marks whenever it is used. This is because Python treats “” as a line continuation character.

To solve the error in our code, we need to enclose the newline character in double quotes:

with open("shortbread_recipe.txt", "w+") as ingredients_file:
		for i in ingredients:
			 ingredients_file.write(i + "n")

Let’s run our code. Our code returns no value to the console. A new file called “shortbread_recipe.txt” is created. Its contents are as follows:

150g plain flour
100g butter, chilled an cubed
50g caster sugar

Our code has successfully printed our list to the “shortbread_recipe.txt” file.

Conclusion

The “SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character” error is raised when you add code after a line continuation character.

To solve this error, make sure that you use the correct division operator (a forward slash) if you are performing mathematical operations. If you are using any special characters that contain a backslash, like the new line character, make sure that they are enclosed within quotation marks.

Now you’re ready to fix this error in your code!

In Python, we can use the backslash character to break a single line statement into multiple lines to make it easier to read. If we want to use this continuation character, it must be the last character of that line. The Python interpreter will raise “SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character” if another character follows it. This tutorial will detail the error definition, examples of scenarios that cause the error, and how to solve it.

SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character

SyntaxError tells us that we broke one of the syntax rules to follow when writing a Python program. If we violate any Python syntax, the Python interpreter will raise a SyntaxError. Another example of a SyntaxError is abruptly ending a program before executing all of the code, which raises “SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing“.

The part “unexpected character after line continuation character” tells us that we have some code after the line continuation character . We can use the line continuation character to break up single line statements across multiple lines of code. Let’s look at the example of writing part of the opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:

long_string = "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,"
 "it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,"
 "it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,"
 "it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness..."

print(long_string)

In this example, we break the string into three lines, making it easier to read. If we print the string, we will get a single string with no breaks.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness...

Three examples scenarios could raise this SyntaxError

• Putting a character after the line continuation character
• Division using the line continuation character
• Incorrect use of the new line character n

Let’s go through each of these mistakes and present their solutions.

Example #1: Putting a Character after the line continuation character

If we put any character after the line continuation character, we will raise the SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character. Let’s put a comma after the first break in the long string above:

long_string = "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,",
   "it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,"
   "it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,"
   "it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness..."

print(long_string)

    long_string = "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,",
                                                                          ^
SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character

Solution

To solve this, we need to ensure there are no characters after the line continuation character. We remove the comma after the first line continuation character in this example.

Example #2: Division using the Line Continuation Character

In this example, we will write a program that calculates the speed of a runner in miles per hour (mph). The first part of the program asks the user to input the distance they ran and how long it took to run:

distance = float(input("How far did you run in miles?"))
time = float(input("How long did it take to run this distance in hours?"))

We use the float() function to convert the string type value returned by input() to floating-point numbers. We do the conversion to perform mathematical operations with the values.

Next, we will try to calculate the speed of the runner, which is distance divided by time:

running_speed = distance  time

print(f'Your speed is: {str(round(running_speed), 1)} mph')

We use the round() function to round the speed to one decimal place. Let’s see what happens when we try to run this code:

How far did you run in miles?5

How long did it take to run this distance in hours?0.85

running_speed = distance  time
                                   ^
SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character

We raise the SyntaxError because we tried to use as the division operator instead of the / character.

Solution

To solve this error, we use the division operator in our code

running_speed = distance / time
print(f'Your speed is: {str(round(running_speed, 1))} mph')

Our code returns:

Your speed is: 5.9 mph

We have successfully calculated the speed of the runner!

Example #3: Incorrect Use of the New Line Character “n”

In this example scenario, we will write a program that writes a list of runner names and speeds in miles per hour to a text file. Let’s define a list of runners with their speeds:

runners = [
"John Ron: 5.9 mph",
"Carol Barrel: 7.9 mph",
"Steve Leaves: 6.2 mph"
]

with open("runners.txt", "w+") as runner_file:
    for runner in runners:
        runner_file.write(runner + n)

    runner_file.write(runner + n)
                                  ^
SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character

The code loops over the runner details in the list and writes each runner to the file followed by a newline character in Python, “n“. The newline character ensures each runner detail is on a new line. If we try to run the code, we will raise the SyntaxError:

    runner_file.write(runner + n)
                                  ^
SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character

We raised the error because we did not enclose the newline character in quotation marks.

Solution

If we do not enclose the newline character in quotation marks, the Python interpreter treats the as a line continuation character. To solve the error, we need to enclose the newline character in quotation marks.

with open("runners.txt", "w+") as runner_file:
    for runner in runners:
        runner_file.write(runner + "n")

If we run this code, it will write a new file called runners.txt with the following contents:

John Ron: 5.9 mph
Carol Barrel: 7.9 mph
Steve Leaves: 6.2 mph

Summary

Congratulations on reading to the end of this tutorial. The SyntaxError: unexpected character after line continuation character occurs when you add code after a line continuation character. You can solve this error by deleting any characters after the line continuation character if you encounter this error. If you are trying to divide numbers, ensure you use the correct division operator (a forward slash). If you are using any special characters that contain a backslash, like a newline character, ensure you enclose them with quotation marks.

To learn more about Python for data science and machine learning, go to the online courses pages on Python for the best courses online!

Have fun and happy researching!