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Strings and Type Conversion  ›  Lesson

Raw String Literals

Raw String Literals 10 minA back-quoted string literal is raw: every character between the backticks is kept exactly as written, including backslashes and line breaks, and nothing is escaped.

Raw String Literals

tally needs a help message several lines long, and a regular expression full of backslashes. Writing either with double quotes means a thicket of \n and \\. Go has a second kind of literal that simply takes you at your word.

The rule

Backticks are raw: what you type is exactly what you get.

A string between backticks is a raw literal. No escape sequences are processed, and it may span as many lines as you like:

const usage = `tally counts the words in a file.

Usage:
	tally [-v] FILE
`

var wordPattern = regexp.MustCompile(`\b\w+\b`)
  • The help text keeps its real line breaks and tab.
  • The pattern reaches regexp with its backslashes intact. The double-quoted version would be "\\b\\w+\\b".

What "raw" means precisely:

  • \n inside backticks is two characters, a backslash and an n, so len(`a\nb`) is 4, not 3.
  • Line breaks you type are kept as newline characters.
  • Carriage returns (\r) are dropped, so a file saved with Windows line endings still gives the same string.
  • A raw string cannot contain a backtick, because that ends it. Join a piece in double quotes instead: `say ` + "`hi`".

Because nothing is processed, a raw string is always exactly as long as the characters you typed, minus any carriage returns. That makes it easy to reason about, and it is why tools that generate Go code often emit raw strings for embedded text.

Raw strings shine for help text, regular expressions, Windows paths such as `C:\notes\new.txt`, SQL queries, and JSON samples in tests.

The shortcut

Choose by asking "does my text contain backslashes or line breaks I want kept?" Yes → backticks. "Do I need a tab, newline or quote produced by an escape?" Yes → double quotes.

Choosing literals for tallyStep 1 of 4

  1. The help message

    Several lines, laid out by hand. Backticks, typed as it should look.

Drills

Answer fast — trust the rule.

quick drill

How many bytes long is the raw literal `tab\t`?

quick drill

Which literal produces the regular expression \d+ correctly?

quick drill

Which character can a raw string literal not contain?

quick drill

A raw literal typed over three lines is printed. What do you see?

Remember

  • Backticks are raw: what you type is exactly what you get.
  • Shortcut: backslashes or hand-laid lines → backticks; escapes wanted → double quotes.
  • Trap: \n in backticks is two characters, and a backtick cannot go inside.

Practice — level up

0/1 solved

Write your answer, then compare it with a rubric and a model answer.

ExplainHelp text and patterns

tally needs a multi-line help message and a regular expression \b\w+\b for matching words. Explain why raw string literals suit both, and name the one thing a raw string cannot contain.