13.2: Newline Character

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Page ID: 19940

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As a refresher, in the context of output, a newline means move the cursor to the start of the next line. In many languages, including C, it is often noted as “\n” as part of a string. C++ uses endl in the context of a cout statement. For example, “Hello World 1” and “Hello\nWorld 2” would be displayed as follows:

       Hello World 1
       Hello
       World 2

Nothing is displayed for the newline, but the cursor is moved to the start of the next line as shown.

In Unix/Linux systems, the linefeed, abbreviated LF with an ASCII value of 10 (or 0x0A), is used as the newline character. In Windows systems, the newline is carriage return, abbreviated as CR with an ASCII value 13 (or 0x0D) followed by the LF. The LF is used in the code examples in the text.

The reader may have seen instances where a text file is downloaded from a web page and displayed using older versions Windows Notepad (pre-Windows 10) where all the formatting is lost and it looks like the text is one very long line. This is typically due to a Unix/Linux formatted file, which uses only LF's, being displayed with a Windows utility that expects CR/LF pairs and does not display correctly when only LF's are found. Other Windows software, like Notepad++ (open source text editor) will recognize and handle the different newline formats and display correctly.