CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javafile-io
DreamsOfHummus
DreamsOfHummus

Reputation: 745

In java, when using Strings as file Pathnames, what is the difference between '\\' and '\'

E.g. When I use C:\\a.txt

It works fine, but when I use C:\a.txt

It does not.

Anyone explain the difference between the two except from saying one works and the other doesn't.

Thanks

Upvotes: 1

Views: 103

Answers (5)

Mark Sholund
Mark Sholund

Reputation: 1312

Its also good use File.separator to get the separator '/' or '\' (if there are others then I dont know about them) necessary for the OS that is running the JVM.

Upvotes: 0

Adil Shaikh
Adil Shaikh

Reputation: 44740

Just a quote to remember : Backslash is NOT a path separator!

Upvotes: 0

Uku Loskit
Uku Loskit

Reputation: 42040

A single \ means an escape sequence which has a specific meaning for the compiler. \\ basicly escapes the escape sequence. So, if you type C:\a the compiler treats \a as a escape sequence, something that you did not intend.

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/data/characters.html

Upvotes: 2

Skatox
Skatox

Reputation: 4284

In java the \ symbol is reserved to use with other char to make special symbols, for example, 

\n is new line
\t is a tab

So if you use one \ like in C:\a.txt it will think that \a is an special char, while using \\ will be transformed in one \

Upvotes: 2

Tudor
Tudor

Reputation: 62439

\ is a special character used for escaping other special characters. As such, if a single \ is present it is interpreted as a special character in the string, but since there is nothing to escape, it's considered a "wrong usage".

Therefore, the \ has to be escaped with a second \ to give it its literal meaning.

Upvotes: 6

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