Where does the \n come from?

Question

I'm trying to test a string. I get the innerHTML, yet it has extra u'\\n and \\n'

AssertionError: u'\n<p><strong>Codul de Utilizator/Parola introduse nu sunt corecte!</strong></p>\n' != '<p><strong>Codul de Utilizator/Parola introduse nu sunt corecte!</strong></p>'

HTML from site

<div id="errorDiv1" class="error" style="display: block;">
   <p><strong>Codul de Utilizator/Codul introduse nu sunt corecte!</strong></p>
</div>

Code

        error = self.driver.find_element_by_id("errorDiv1").get_attribute('innerHTML')
        expected_error = '<p><strong>Codul de Utilizator/Parola introduse nu sunt corecte!</strong></p>'
        self.assertEqual(error, expected_error)

What is happening here? Where they come from?

Answer 1

\\n is the new line character.

It's present since there's a new line character between line 1 and line 2 of your HTML code.

Answer 2

u'' defines a Unicode String in python Unicode Strings .

'\\n' is a escape sequence and stands for Linefeed . Linefeed means advancing the printing area by one line.