How to print \n in a String in java

Question

I want to print \n.

String text = "";

text = "\n is used for new line";

but the \n is not showing when I run the code. How to do this?

If you're planning on writing to the console, rather than using "print" use "println". That will give you your linebreak anyway. — durbnpoisn, Nov 15 '15 at 20:49

score 11 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 15 '15 at 20:48

11

Escape the \ with \

text = "\\n is used for new line";

answered Nov 15 '15 at 20:48

rajuGT

Kvam · Answer 2 · 2015-11-15T20:56:20.587

6

If you want to actually write the two chars \and n to output, you need to escape the backslash: \\n.

edited Nov 15 '15 at 20:56

answered Nov 15 '15 at 20:50

Kvam

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 15 '15 at 20:54

5

You can also use System.lineSeparator(), introduced in Java 8:

String result = "cat" + System.lineSeparator() + "dog";
System.out.print(result);

Output:

cat
dog

answered Nov 15 '15 at 20:54

I repealed the downvote, but the downvote was originally because you missed the point of the OP's question. They don't want to print a newline char. They want to print the literal '\n' char. – Andy Guibert Nov 15 '15 at 21:02
In deed, I totally missed that part. Thanks for the clarification ! – Mohammed Aouf Zouag Nov 15 '15 at 21:04

Andy Guibert · Answer 4 · 2015-11-15T21:04:13.003

3

In java, the \ char is an escape character, meaning that the following char is some sort of control character (such as \n \t or \r).

To print literals in Java escape it with an additional \ char

Such as:

String text = "\\n is used for a new line";
System.out.println(text);

Will print:

\n is used for a new line

edited Nov 15 '15 at 21:04

answered Nov 15 '15 at 20:52

Andy Guibert

4 Answers4