CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptline-breaks
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Reputation: 15652

In javascript, what is the difference between '\' and '\n'?

I figure that both \ and \n can be used as a line break. What is the difference?

EDIT: Sorry I realized that I was wrong. The tutorial was talking about / as a line break for the programmer, which wasn't displayed, i.e:

alert("Hi \
there");

Upvotes: 3

Views: 425

Answers (3)

PleaseStand
PleaseStand

Reputation: 32052

\n is the only correct escape code for a newline (short of using things like \u000a or similar).

Note that the below code does not actually insert line breaks (would still need the actual \n escape code):

var foo = 'qwertyuiopasdfghjkl\
qwertyuiopasdfghjkl\
qwertyuiopasdfghjkl';

The result is 'qwertyuiopasdfghjklqwertyuiopasdfghjklqwertyuiopasdfghjkl'. I also don't recommend the above code because indenting the continuation lines causes problems with unwanted spaces in your string. One good alternative, though, is:

var foo = [
    'qwertyuiopasdfghjkl',
    'qwertyuiopasdfghjkl',
    'qwertyuiopasdfghjkl'
].join('\n');

Upvotes: 2

Mark Byers
Mark Byers

Reputation: 837926

A slash at the end of a line inside a string allows you to write the rest of the string on the following line. The resulting string won't actually contain a line break at that point. It is purely used to help make the source code more readable.

var foo = "This string \
has only \
one line.";

// Result:
// This string has only one line.

A "\n" actually inserts a linebreak.

var bar = "This string has\ntwo lines.";

// Result:
// This string has
// two lines.

Upvotes: 7

Will
Will

Reputation: 20235

\n is a way of writing a new line (line break). So, "Hello World!\nHow are you?" would output like this:

// Hello World!
// How are you?

instead of this:

// Hello World!How are you?

You can use the "\" before other letters too... like \t which is a tab. or \\ which makes a back-slash. But just entering \ in a string will output nothing.

Upvotes: 1

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