# How to get a string to print with "special" characters showing as escape sequences, rather than as w

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-get-a-string-to-print-with-special-characters-showing-as-escape-sequences-rather-than-as-w/149333>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 23, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-get-a-string-to-print-with-special-characters-showing-as-escape-sequences-rather-than-as-w/149333 "2008-09-23T19:36:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Kenneth_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-get-a-string-to-print-with-special-characters-showing-as-escape-sequences-rather-than-as-w/149333/1 "2008-09-23T19:36:23Z")

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Again, this is for debugging purposes. Thanks for the help.  
Ken

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**Author:** ![Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Kenneth_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 9:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-get-a-string-to-print-with-special-characters-showing-as-escape-sequences-rather-than-as-w/149333/2 "2008-09-24T09:55:16Z")

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Kenneth McDonald wrote:

> Again, this is for debugging purposes. Thanks for the help.  
> Ken

Do you mean String#inspect?

a = “\007foo\nbar”  
puts a.inspect

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Kenneth_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-get-a-string-to-print-with-special-characters-showing-as-escape-sequences-rather-than-as-w/149333/3 "2008-09-24T20:40:41Z")

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Kenneth McDonald wrote:

> Again, this is for debugging purposes. Thanks for the help.  
> Ken

use p()