How can I print a string adding newlines in Java?

Question

I have a string like

"I am a boy".

I would like to print it this way

"I 
am 
a
boy".

Can anybody help me?

Prince John Wesley · Answer 1 · 2011-10-20T09:53:40.693

157

System.out.println("I\nam\na\nboy");

System.out.println("I am a boy".replaceAll("\\s+","\n"));

System.out.println("I am a boy".replaceAll("\\s+",System.getProperty("line.separator"))); // portable way

edited Oct 20 '11 at 09:53

answered Oct 20 '11 at 09:21

Prince John Wesley

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@the_prole explained [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3925947/what-is-portability-how-is-java-more-portable-than-other-languages) – Prince John Wesley Dec 08 '15 at 09:56
The third option is best for portability. – Amos Bordowitz Dec 02 '18 at 13:17

score 147 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 23 '16 at 04:44

147

You can also use System.lineSeparator():

String x = "Hello," + System.lineSeparator() + "there";

edited Feb 23 '16 at 04:44

Pang

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answered Jul 23 '15 at 23:46

Emalton

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In the older Java versions: `System.getProperty("line.separator")`. – ROMANIA_engineer Feb 29 '16 at 10:08
2

Shortcut: `String x = "Hello, %n there";` . Added spaces around `%n` just for the sake of readability. – Manoj Shrestha Jun 01 '18 at 20:06

Levent Divilioglu · Answer 3 · 2016-06-28T13:59:39.957

Example

System.out.printf("I %n am %n a %n boy");

Output

I 
 am 
 a 
 boy

Explanation

It's better to use %n as an OS independent new-line character instead of \n and it's easier than using System.lineSeparator()

Why to use %n, because on each OS, new line refers to a different set of character(s);

Unix and modern Mac's   :   LF     (\n)
Windows                 :   CR LF  (\r\n)
Older Macintosh Systems :   CR     (\r)

LF is the acronym of Line Feed and CR is the acronym of Carriage Return. The escape characters are written inside the parenthesis. So on each OS, new line stands for something specific to the system. %n is OS agnostic, it is portable. It stands for \n on Unix systems or \r\n on Windows systems and so on. Thus, Do not use \n, instead use %n.

see [Line Separator section](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/Formatter.html#dls) in docs — Ilya Serbis, May 28 '18 at 10:05

score 29 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 06 '16 at 07:32

29

It can be done several ways. I am mentioning 2 simple ways.

Very simple way as below:
```
System.out.println("I\nam\na\nboy");
```

It can also be done with concatenation as below:

System.out.println("I" + '\n' + "am" + '\n' + "a" + '\n' + "boy");

edited Jul 06 '16 at 07:32

Jordi Castilla

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answered Apr 22 '13 at 05:58

Ripon Al Wasim

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score 15 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 01 '12 at 14:15

15

Try:

System.out.println("I\nam\na\nboy");

edited Aug 01 '12 at 14:15

bluish

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answered Oct 20 '11 at 09:20

Andrea Girardi

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score 13 · Answer 6 · edited Jul 30 '15 at 21:16

13

To make the code portable to any system, I would use:

public static String newline = System.getProperty("line.separator");

This is important because different OSs use different notations for newline: Windows uses "\r\n", Classic Mac uses "\r", and Mac and Linux both use "\n".

Commentors - please correct me if I'm wrong on this...

edited Jul 30 '15 at 21:16

Community

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answered May 24 '15 at 12:43

Amos Bordowitz

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score 8 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 21 '21 at 13:08

8

\n is used for making separate line;

Example:

System.out.print("I" +'\n'+ "am" +'\n'+ "a" +'\n'+ "boy");

Result:

I
am
a
boy

edited Jun 21 '21 at 13:08

Madhuv Sharma

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answered Jul 31 '15 at 07:29

Surendar D

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Please read other answers first. Your solution is already there. – Honza Zidek Jul 31 '15 at 07:56

score 7 · Answer 8 · edited May 25 '21 at 11:44

7

Platform-Independent Line Breaks:

finalString = "physical" + System.lineSeparator() + "distancing";
System.out.println(finalString);

Output:

physical
distancing

Notes:

Java 6: System.getProperty("line.separator")
Java 7 & above: System.lineSeparator()

edited May 25 '21 at 11:44

Joachim Sauer

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answered Oct 23 '19 at 13:13

Bandham Manikanta

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score 6 · Answer 9 · edited Nov 09 '21 at 13:10

6

If you simply want to print a newline in the console you can use \n for newlines.

If you want to break text in Swing components you can use HTML and its <br>:

String str = "<html>first line<br>second line</html>";

edited Nov 09 '21 at 13:10

mhpreiman

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answered Oct 20 '11 at 09:21

Stephan

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This works for me. And I am using unicode font. This works better. – Disapamok Jul 11 '17 at 06:32

score 5 · Answer 10 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

5

What about %n using a formatter like String.format()?:

String s = String.format("I%nam%na%nboy");

As this answer says, its available from java 1.5 and is another way to System.getProperty("line.separator") or System.lineSeparator() and, like this two, is OS independent.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Jul 30 '15 at 21:58

Alex S. Diaz

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score 5 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 20 '11 at 09:25

5

If you want to have your code os-unspecific you should use println for each word

System.out.println("I");
System.out.println("am");
System.out.println("a");
System.out.println("boy");

because Windows uses "\r\n" as newline and unixoid systems use just "\n"

println always uses the correct one

answered Oct 20 '11 at 09:25

Hachi

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This is not a good solution to write too many System.out.println() – Ripon Al Wasim Apr 22 '13 at 05:43
@op Remember that `println()` adds a newline character at the *end* of the string (not the beginning). – Wolfpack'08 May 16 '14 at 05:51
@Hachi, `System.lineSeparator()` or `System.getProperty("line.separator")` can used to make code system independent. – Ashish Kumar Feb 01 '17 at 06:08

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered May 17 '14 at 02:10

Full program example, with a fun twist:

Open a new blank document and save it as %yourJavaDirectory%/iAmABoy/iAmABoy.java. "iAmABoy" is the class name.

Paste the following code in and read through it. Remember, I'm a beginner, so I appreciate all feedback!

//The class name should be the same as your Java-file and directory name.
class iAmABoy {

    //Create a variable number of String-type arguments, "strs"; this is a useful line of code worth memorizing.
    public static void nlSeparated(String... strs) {

        //Each argument is an str that is printed.
        for (String str : strs) {

            System.out.println(str);

        }

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        //This loop uses 'args' .  'Args' can be accessed at runtime.  The method declaration (above) uses 'str', but the method instances (as seen below) can take variables of any name in the place of 'str'.
        for (String arg : args) {

            nlSeparated(arg);

        }

        //This is a signature.  ^^
        System.out.print("\nThanks, Wolfpack08!");
    } 

}

Now, in terminal/cmd, browse to %yourJavaDirectory%/iAmABoy and type:

javac iAmABoy.java
java iAmABoy I am a boy

You can replace the args I am a boy with anything!

You do not need two loops. Either pass `args` directly to `nlSeparated()` or make `nlSeparated()` take a scalar `String` instead of an array. First option is probably better. Also, print your signature with `println` instead of `print`. — Mad Physicist, Dec 09 '14 at 22:32
In `main`, replace `for (String arg : args) { nlSeparated(arg); }` with just `nlSeparated(args);`. `nlSeparated` already accepts a list of `String`s. For a better explanation, see here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/12534579/2988730 — Mad Physicist, Nov 10 '16 at 16:38

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 10 '16 at 10:24

1

Go for a split.

String string = "I am a boy";
for (String part : string.split(" ")) {
    System.out.println(part);
}

answered Feb 10 '16 at 10:24

mrVoid

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 30 '18 at 05:30

I use this code String result = args[0].replace("\\n", "\n");

public class HelloWorld {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String result = args[0].replace("\\n", "\n");
        System.out.println(result);
    }
}

with terminal I can use arg I\\nam\\na\\boy to make System.out.println print out

I
am
a
boy

score 0 · Answer 15 · edited Oct 06 '20 at 09:12

0

Here it is!! NewLine is known as CRLF(Carriage Return and Line Feed).

For Linux and Mac, we can use "\n".
For Windows, we can use "\r\n".

Sample:

System.out.println("I\r\nam\r\na\r\nboy");

Result:

It worked for me.

edited Oct 06 '20 at 09:12

Dharman

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answered Oct 06 '20 at 09:07

Harisudha

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score -1 · Answer 16 · answered Feb 10 '16 at 10:05

-1

you can use <br> tag in your string for show in html pages

answered Feb 10 '16 at 10:05

Mehdi Roostaeian

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It's always a bad idea to embed markup in your output. You never know what display technology your users are using. Best to keep it as generic as possible, and use a formatting filter for display if needed. – TMN Feb 22 '18 at 14:05
I said it just works in html page, it's just a suggest for who want to show a simple text in web pages. – Mehdi Roostaeian Jul 12 '18 at 11:37

Vipin Pandey · Answer 17 · 2021-05-25T14:31:31.407

-1

Here I am using the split function. I braked String from spaces. then I used println function and printed the value.

    public class HelloWorld{

     public static void main(String []args){
              String input = "I am a boy";
              String[] opuput = input.split(" ");
          for (int i = 0; i < opuput.length; i++)
                System.out.println(opuput[i]);
         }        
}

edited May 25 '21 at 14:31

answered May 25 '21 at 03:03

Vipin Pandey

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`input` is not defined. That's not an issue when you're just providing some exemplary code, but this code block gives the impression of being a full runnable example (since it has a `public static void main`, however it doesn't compile. So *either* make it a short 3-line sample that references "invisible" variables or make it an actually runnable sample, this mixture is just confusing. – Joachim Sauer May 25 '21 at 11:43

How can I print a string adding newlines in Java?

17 Answers17

Example

Output

Explanation

Linked

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