What is the purpose of a backslash at the end of a line?

Just found the following module import in a Python code:

from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base,
      AbstractConcreteBase

I am curious about the backslash at the end of the first line. What’s the purpose of it? Wouldn’t it be the same as the following?

from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base, AbstractConcreteBase

Answers:

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Method 1

Yep, it’s exactly the same and this is the point of the backslash — it escapes the newline, allowing this long line to be split in two. An alternative is to use parentheses:

from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import (declarative_base,
      AbstractConcreteBase)

While this is a syntax error:

from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base,
      AbstractConcreteBase

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