conversion of newlines in a string

[Skaperen]

what is the best function to convert newlines in a string to Unix style whether in Windows style or Mac style (or a mix of both), all in one function call? i could do this in C in a way that would not be good in Python (picking at characters one by one).

[Gribouillis]

I don't know if it is the best solution but you could try

import re
new_string = re.sub(rb'\r\n?', b'\n', old_string)

A potential problem is the case of a Windows file which contains \r characters not followed by \n. These \r characters will be interpreted as new lines because we don't know a priori if it is a Windows file or a Mac file.

[buran]

>>> foo = 'spam\reggs\nspam\r\neggs'
>>> '\n'.join(foo.splitlines())
'spam\neggs\nspam\neggs'

docs for str.splitlines()

[Skaperen]

because we don't know a priori if it is a Windows file or a Mac file.

so, \r has a different meaning depending on which. i recall that, now. i was thinking in a narrow box trying to cover potential cases. i will know a priori whether it is Windows or Mac so i could use a different function for each. i was wondering if i should implement my own set of functions or use what Python might have.