JavaScript Multiline String

Question

The question is:

What is the JavaScript method to store a multiline string into a variable like you can in PHP?

check my answer on http://stackoverflow.com/a/19970452/209797 — AgelessEssence, Nov 14 '13 at 05:53

score 25 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 22 '11 at 13:24

If by 'multiline string' you mean a string containing linebreaks, those can be written by escaping them using \n (for newline):

var multilineString = 'Line 1\nLine 2';
alert(multilineString);
// Line 1
// Line 2

If you mean, how can a string be written across multiple lines of code, then you can continue the string by putting a \ backslash at the end of the line:

var multilineString = 'Line \
1\nLine 2';
alert(multilineString);
// Line 1
// Line 2

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 18 '15 at 18:14

15

var es6string = `<div>
    This is a string.
</div>`;

console.log(es6string);

answered Sep 18 '15 at 18:14

Endless

34,080
13
108
131

2

Note: This only works with ES6 and, at the time of this writing, is not well supported in IE11 or Safari. – Mike Cluck Sep 18 '15 at 19:14
2

This is becoming the correct answer. – John Aug 20 '17 at 16:22
Ugh why does JS need to reinvent the wheel. This should be a subprocess. – Joshua Cook Jan 26 '19 at 20:43

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 27 '13 at 21:33

Based on previous answers and different use cases, here is a small example:

https://gist.github.com/lavoiesl/5880516 Don't forget to use /*! to avoid the comment being removed in minification

function extractFuncCommentString(func) {
  var matches = func.toString().match(/function\s*\(\)\s*\{\s*\/\*\!?\s*([\s\S]+?)\s*\*\/\s*\}/);
  if (!matches) return false;

  return matches[1];
}

var myString = extractFuncCommentString(function(){/*!
  <p>
    foo bar
  </p>
*/});

I've never seen this before, I don't know how practical this would be, but this is helluva creative way to handle multiline strings! +1 — Oleg, Sep 13 '13 at 03:55

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 22 '11 at 13:02

5

Only (?) way to have multiline strings in Javascript:

var multiline_string = 'line 1\
line 2\
line 3';

answered Mar 22 '11 at 13:02

Björn

29,019
9
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81

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 28 '15 at 19:57

1

var myString = [
  'One line',
  'Another line'
].join('\n');

answered Jul 28 '15 at 19:57

Rafael Vega

4,575
4
32
50

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 20 '15 at 13:25

This works:

var htmlString = "<div>This is a string.</div>";

This fails:

var htmlSTring = "<div>
  This is a string.
</div>";

Sometimes this is desirable for readability.

Add backslashes to get it to work:

var htmlSTring = "<div>\
  This is a string.\
</div>";

or this way

var htmlSTring  = 'This is\n' +
'a multiline\n' + 
'string';

JavaScript Multiline String

6 Answers6

Linked