CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#escaping
helloworld
helloworld

Reputation: 924

Confusion regarding string and escape characters

suppose there is a string created like: string s="This \n is new staring";

Above code we have got a \n which is a new line character which can be escaped either via an @ before the double quotes or by using \.

The confusion is my mind is that:

a. suppose this value is taken from a input box into the code then the \n get treated as normal string (automatically gets \n) and not new line character.

b. same if we assign the textbox value to a multiline textbox or label, the value gets treated as \n and is output as \n and not newline.

Is there any reference for this concept please.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 70

Answers (2)

DrKoch
DrKoch

Reputation: 9782

The basics:

In memory you may have these bytes:

0x41, 0x42, 0x0a, 0x00

in decimal the same memory sells read as

65, 66, 10, 0

If interpteted as ASCII characters you have

'A', 'B', Newline, EndOfString

If you want to express these in source code, you may write:

string s = "AB\n"; // note: 0x00 is appended automatically

The compiler will do all the conversions and end up with the bytes in the first example. So "\n" is just a way to include the special chars Newline / Byte 0x0A in a string in a convenient way.

If you receive something from another application, through a file or a socket or whatever, you in fact receive Bytes, which your code may interpret in one of the ways explained above.

Please note: In .Net we have UTF strings, where each character in fact uses 16Bit/two Bytes, so the above explanation is good for C but not exactly true for C#. The basic principles are the same however.

Upvotes: 1

C.Evenhuis
C.Evenhuis

Reputation: 26446

The escape characters are processed at compile time. This means that the compiled version of your program does not contain any escape characters.

Same goes for the @"" notation: it just changes the way you can supply data for the string while writing your program, and is not included in your compiled program.

Data entered in a text box does not undergo escape character processing, so entering \n really is a string containing the characters '\' and 'n'.

Upvotes: 1

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