From the python documentation on regex, regarding the '\' character:

The solution is to use Python’s raw string notation for regular expression patterns; backslashes are not handled in any special way in a string literal prefixed with 'r'. So r"\n" is a two-character string containing '\' and 'n', while "\n" is a one-character string containing a newline. Usually patterns will be expressed in Python code using this raw string notation.

What is this raw string notation? If you use a raw string format, does that mean "*" is taken as a a literal character rather than a zero-or-more indicator? That obviously can't be right, or else regex would completely lose its power. But then if it's a raw string, how does it recognize newline characters if "\n" is literally a backslash and an "n"?

I don't follow.

Edit for bounty:

I'm trying to understand how a raw string regex matches newlines, tabs, and character sets, e.g. \w for words or \d for digits or all whatnot, if raw string patterns don't recognize backslashes as anything more than ordinary characters. I could really use some good examples.