SmartSend removes empty lines with triple-quoted strings

[cbrnr]

Type: Bug

Behaviour

SmartSend on a triple-quoted string containing empty lines (i.e. two or more subsequent \n) removes empty lines on execution.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Hit Shift-Enter on the following string:

"""Hello

World




How are you?"""

The result is:

'Hello\nWorld\nHow are you?'

The expected result is:

'Hello\n\nWorld\n\n\n\n\nHow are you?'

Diagnostic data

Output for Python in the Output panel (View→Output, change the drop-down the upper-right of the Output panel to Python)

2024-07-04 08:42:46.921 [info] Telemetry level is off
2024-07-04 08:42:46.921 [info] Experiments are disabled, only manually opted experiments are active.
2024-07-04 08:42:46.921 [info] Python interpreter path: ~/.pyenv/versions/3.12.4/envs/temp/bin/python
2024-07-04 08:42:47.743 [info] Starting Pylance language server.
2024-07-04 08:42:49.160 [info] > ~/.pyenv/versions/3.12.4/envs/temp/bin/python ~/.vscode/extensions/ms-python.python-2024.9.2024062703-darwin-arm64/python_files/normalizeSelection.py
2024-07-04 08:42:49.307 [info] Send text to terminal: /Users/clemens/.pyenv/versions/3.12.4/envs/temp/bin/python
2024-07-04 08:47:40.793 [info] > ~/.pyenv/versions/3.12.4/envs/temp/bin/python ~/.vscode/extensions/ms-python.python-2024.9.2024062703-darwin-arm64/python_files/normalizeSelection.py
2024-07-04 08:47:40.827 [info] Send text to terminal: """Hello
World
How are you?"""

Extension version: 2024.9.2024062703
VS Code version: Code 1.91.0 (ea1445cc7016315d0f5728f8e8b12a45dc0a7286, 2024-07-01T18:53:23.353Z)
OS version: Darwin arm64 23.5.0
Modes:

[anthonykim1]

@cbrnr Hello! Thank you for filing the issue. I believe this is expected behavior as we "normalize" white spaces to send to terminal and REPL. I think you should be able to repro this even when you turn off smart send, if I recall correctly.

[cbrnr]

Yes, I can reproduce the behavior also when SmartSend is off. However, I do not think that this is expected behavior. Executing a command should not modify ("normalize") the contents of a string, which is what is happening here. So to me, this is clearly a bug.

[hoechenberger]

I would tend to agree with @cbrnr here: if I send something to the REPL, it should not get modified. If I intended to print this string, suddenly some intentionally empty lines would be gone -- surely this cannot be right!

[anthonykim1]

Thank you all for your feedback. Let me bring this up the team.

[anthonykim1]

Good news folks. Managed to get this in August plan, so I will be investigating how to best handle this normalization of command when we send it to either terminal REPL or native REPL!

[hoechenberger]

Amazing, thanks @anthonykim1!

[anthonykim1]

Hi folks! Just merged in the PR for this, that being said it should be available starting tomorrow's(August 21st) pre-release of the Python extension. Give this a try via running shift+enter on your multi line string or even an assignment to the multi-line string. Thank you all :)

[anthonykim1]

Verification steps:

1. Install latest pre-release version of Python extension
2. Open a Python file or create one with multi line string such as

"""
hello there



"""

3. Press shift+enter and watch that new line character inside the multi-line string are NOT truncated and therefore respected.

[github-actions]

Because we have not heard back with the information we requested, we are closing this issue for now. If you are able to provide the info later on, then we will be happy to re-open this issue to pick up where we left off.

Happy Coding!