What does the bytes format “\xFF\xFF\xFF” mean and how it is interpreted?

Question

bytes sig = hex"aca7da" and bytes sig = "\xac\xa7\xda" seem to be the same thing, ASCII interpreted as hex. Does the format "\xFF\xFF\xFF" somehow code that it should be read as hex?

Answer 1

the \xNN notation is used to express hexadecimal like in Javascript(Hexadecimal escape sequences).

The provided forms are the same to represent the value of :0xaca7da

Difference :

\x could be used to express a special hex(initial form) value within a string e.g : "aca7\xd4" which is in asci will be converted to hex 0x61636137da so 'da' keeps its form(not considered as a string).However, hex"" will consider the whole string in the hex form.