In Python, escape sequences are special characters that are used to represent characters that are difficult or impossible to type directly in a string literal. Escape sequences are composed of a backslash (\) followed by one or more characters that have a special meaning.

Here are some of the most commonly used escape sequences in Python:

  • \\: backslash
  • \': single quote
  • \": double quote
  • \n: newline
  • \t: tab
  • \b: backspace
  • \r: carriage return
  • \f: form feed

Here's an example of using escape sequences in a string:

print('Hello, \'world\'!\n\tHow are you?')

This code will output:

Hello, 'world'!
    How are you?

In this example, the escape sequences \’ and \n are used to represent a single quote and a newline character, respectively. The escape sequence \t is used to insert a tab character, which creates an indentation.

Escape sequences are also commonly used to represent special characters in regular expressions and other contexts where character encoding is important.