Why are backslashes doubled in output of file paths?

Question

I have a problem with this script. In the output it doubles \\.

import os
import time
import shutil

login = os.getlogin()

print(login)
while True:
    filepath = input()
    if filepath == 'end':
        break
    elif filepath[0:4] == 'copy': #im start command with 'copy' to copy file like 'copy C:\\Users...'
        dirlist = os.listdir(filepath[5::])
        print('Type dir to copied file')
        codir = input('copy dir is..\n')
        shutil.copy(filepath[5::], codir)
    elif filepath[0:6] == 'search': #im start command with 'search' to copy file like 'search C:\\Users...'
        print(filepath[6:-1])
        dirlist = os.listdir(filepath[6::])
        searchfile = input('file you want to search\n')
        if searchfile in dirlist:
            print("True")
    else:
        dirlist = os.listdir(filepath) # if it has no command, it's just show dir list
        print(dirlist)
print('Script end!')

Output:

$ Tester.py

 Artem

 С:\\\Users

 Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "C:\Users\Artem\Desktop\Tester.py", line 24, in <module>

 FileNotFoundError: [WinError 3] Системе не удается найти указанный путь: 'С:\\\\Users'
                                ^System can't reach this way:'C:\\\\Users' 

Why does it double \\?

Answer 1

Long ago, Microsoft chose to use the backslash \ as a separator, perhaps through naivete (though it seems like an intentional choice to thwart compatibility), while it's been an escape character for an eternity (indicating a special character like \n for a newline or \t for a tab) and the rest of the sane world uses / for this amongst many reasons.

\\ is displaying an escaped backslash \ for compatibility

The system has trouble displaying this, but you can use / and it'll work fine in most, if not all, cases

You may also find pathlib does everything you need for all your pathing more nicely than pure string handling!