<p>I have a string that contains both double-quotes and backslashes that I want to set to a variable in Python. However, whenever I try to set it, the quotes or slashes are either removed or escaped. Here's an example:</p>

<pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; foo = 'baz "\"'
&gt;&gt;&gt; foo
'baz ""'
</code></pre>

<p>So instead of <code>baz "\"</code> like I want I'm getting <code>baz ""</code>. If I then try to escape the backslash, it doesn't help either:</p>

<pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; foo = 'baz "\\"'
&gt;&gt;&gt; foo
'baz "\\"'
</code></pre>

<p>Which now matches what I put in but wasn't what I originally wanted. How do you get around this problem?</p>

You're being mislead by output -- the second approach you're taking actually does what you want, you just aren't believing it. :)
```
```
>>> foo = 'baz "\\"'
>>> foo
'baz "\\"'
>>> print(foo)
baz "\"
```
```
Incidentally, there's another string form which might be a bit clearer:
```
```
>>> print(r'baz "\"')
baz "\"
```
```