I am confused about the difference between 'n' and print('n')

Question

I am still confused when entering this command in the Python shell: ``` >>> 'n' 'n' >>> print('n') n ``` What does `'n'` (first output) mean? And what does the other one `n` mean? Why doesn't Python just print `n` as output of `'n'` same as `print('n')` produced? I think `print('n')` means: I (Python) print `n` as a character Then how about the first one? if `>>> 'n'` means the same, why doesn't it just print `n` as well?

Accepted Answer

You are running the python interpreter in interactive mode, which echos values back at you. Expressions are evaluated and if they return something other than `None`, the interpreter does the equivalent of:

```
print(repr(result))
```

That is the `'n'` you see printed.

`print()` on the other hand, writes directly to your terminal output, after converting the value to a string (the result of the `str()` function, but for a string value, there is no difference as it already is a string object).

This is different from running the Python code in a script; there there is no prompt, and if you put just `'n'` on one line, the Python interpreter would just ignore that line as it doesn't alter any state. `print('n')` on the other hand still would write the string to your console or terminal.

The interactive mode is there to help you figure out what python expressions do, and by using `repr()` you can distinguish between different types of objects. Try print `1` and `"1"`, so an integer number, and a string with the digit `1` in it:

```
>>> print(1)
1
>>> print("1")
1
```

You cannot tell the difference between these two. But their representation does differ:

```
>>> 1
1
>>> "1"
'1'
```

Representations for most Python standard types will use a notation that can be reused in your Python code, as-is.

I am confused about the difference between 'n' and print('n')

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