Escape Sequences in Java

In Java, special characters can be represented using escape sequences. They start with a backslash (\) and are mainly used in char and String literals to represent characters that are otherwise hard to type or have special meaning.

Escape sequences allow you to insert special characters like newline, tab, quotes, or backslash into strings.
They are written using a backslash (\) followed by a character or Unicode code.

Common Escape Sequences

Escape Sequence	Unicode	Description
\b	\u0008	Backspace
\t	\u0009	Horizontal Tab
\n	\u000a	Newline
\f	\u000c	Formfeed
\r	\u000d	Carriage Return
\'	\u0027	Single Quote
\"	\u0022	Double Quote
\\	\u005c	Backslash

Example: Using Escape Sequences

Test.java Copy Code

class Test {
    public static void main(String []arg) {
        System.out.print("C Prowess");
        System.out.print("\tC++ Prowess");
        System.out.print("\nJava Prowess");
    }
}

Output:

C Prowess        C++ Prowess
Java Prowess

More Examples

1. Newline (\n) inserts a new line:

String newLine = "Hello\nWorld";
System.out.println(newLine);
// Output:
// Hello
// World

2. Tab (\t) inserts horizontal spacing:

String tab = "Java\tProgramming";
System.out.println(tab);
// Output: Java    Programming

3. Backslash (\\) inserts a backslash:

String backslash = "C:\\Program Files\\Java";
System.out.println(backslash);
// Output: C:\Program Files\Java

4. Single Quote (\'):

String singleQuote = "It\'s raining";
System.out.println(singleQuote);
// Output: It's raining

5. Double Quote (\"):

String doubleQuote = "He said, \"Hello\"";
System.out.println(doubleQuote);
// Output: He said, "Hello"

6. Carriage Return (\r):

String carriageReturn = "Hello\rWorld";
System.out.println(carriageReturn);
// Output: World

7. Unicode (\uXXXX):

String unicode = "\u00A9 2023";
System.out.println(unicode);
// Output: © 2023

Notes

Escape sequences are always introduced by \.
They are useful for formatting text and inserting special characters.
You can also use Unicode escapes (\uXXXX) for any character.

Next: Java Operators

🚀 Quick Knowledge Check

Topic: Escape-sequences | Language: Java

Q1. What will be the output of this code?

System.out.println("Hello\nWorld");

Q2. What will this code print?

System.out.println("Java\tRocks");

Q3. What will be the output?

System.out.println("She said, \"Java is fun!\"");

Q4. What will this code output?

System.out.println("C:\\Program Files\\Java");

Q5. Predict the output:

System.out.println("ABC\bD");

Literals Operators