Does clojure have raw string?

Question

In Python, I can prefix an r to a string literal (raw string) to tell the interpreter not translate special characters in the string:

>>> r"abc\nsdf#$%\^"
r"abc\nsdf#$%\^"

Is there a way to do the same thing in Clojure?

Coadjutress

Answer 1

Clojure strings are Java strings and the reader does not add anything significant to their interpretation. The reader page just says "standard Java escape characters are supported."

You can escape the \ though:

user> (print "abc\\nsdf#$%\\^")
abc\nsdf#$%\^

This only affect string literals read by the reader, so if you read strings from a file the reader never sees them:

user> (spit "/tmp/foo" "abc\\nsdf#$%\\^")
nil
user> (slurp "/tmp/foo")
"abc\\nsdf#$%\\^"
user> (print (slurp "/tmp/foo"))
abc\nsdf#$%\^nil
user> 

So, I think the basic answer is no.

Cottonseed

Answer 2

Please also note that if you're using Counterclockwise (the Eclipse plugin for Clojure), there is a mode, called "smart paste" (disabled by default) which takes care of correctly escaping special characters when you paste inside an existing literal String.

Evolute

Answer 3

May be of use to a literal regular expression for such purposes.

user=> #"abc\nsdf#$%\^"
#"abc\nsdf#$%\^"
user=> (type #"abc\nsdf#$%\^")
java.util.regex.Pattern
user=> (println (str #"abc\nsdf#$%\^"))
abc\nsdf#$%\^
nil

Surmount

Cheeky but worked perfectly to print some ascii art. – Belamy