SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal

EOL means “End Of Line.” Python reached the end of a line while still inside a string — meaning you have an unclosed quote.

Fix 1: Close your quotes

# ❌ Missing closing quote
message = "Hello world

# ✅ Close it
message = "Hello world"

Fix 2: Escape quotes inside strings

# ❌ The quote inside breaks the string
message = "She said "hello""

# ✅ Use different quotes
message = 'She said "hello"'

# ✅ Or escape them
message = "She said \"hello\""

Fix 3: Use triple quotes for multiline strings

# ❌ Regular strings can't span lines
message = "This is a
very long message"

# ✅ Use triple quotes
message = """This is a
very long message"""

# ✅ Or use backslash continuation
message = "This is a " \
          "very long message"

Fix 4: Escape backslashes in file paths

# ❌ \n is interpreted as newline, \U as unicode escape
path = "C:\Users\new_folder"

# ✅ Use raw string
path = r"C:\Users\new_folder"

# ✅ Or use forward slashes
path = "C:/Users/new_folder"

# ✅ Or escape the backslashes
path = "C:\\Users\\new_folder"

Fix 5: Check for invisible characters

Sometimes copy-pasting code introduces invisible characters or “smart quotes” (curly quotes from Word/Google Docs):

# ❌ Smart quotes (look similar but aren't)
message = "hello"  # These are curly quotes!

# ✅ Regular quotes
message = "hello"

If you suspect this, delete the quotes and retype them manually.

Related resources

• Python cheat sheet
• Python complete guide