183

In .NET I can provide both \r or \n string literals, but there is a way to insert something like "new line" special character like Environment.NewLine static property?

1
  • 9
    What is the question? Commented Nov 3, 2010 at 9:44

12 Answers 12

357

Well, simple options are:

  • string.Format:

    string x = string.Format("first line{0}second line", Environment.NewLine);
    
  • String concatenation:

    string x = "first line" + Environment.NewLine + "second line";
    
  • String interpolation (in C#6 and above):

    string x = $"first line{Environment.NewLine}second line";
    

You could also use \n everywhere, and replace:

string x = "first line\nsecond line\nthird line".Replace("\n",
                                                         Environment.NewLine);

Note that you can't make this a string constant, because the value of Environment.NewLine will only be available at execution time.

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6 Comments

Well, thanks of course but I meant avoiding using Environment.NewLine, my question was if there is '/newline' literal.
@Captain: Why do you want to avoid Environment.NewLine? Quite the contrary, it's a good practice to use it
@abatishchev: In some places it's good practice. In my others it isn't. You really need to know that you want to use the platform-specific one. For example, it isn't a good idea if you're using a network protocol which should define line terminators itself.
@Captain Comic: My final sentence explains why it can't be a literal escape - you can't include it in the metadata for a string constant, because it's not a constant value.
Yeah may be I was reluctant cause both options: one using plus operator and second using Format method are quite an overhead where injecting '\newline' literal would be the fastest way. But as Jon said NewLine literal if existed would have to be dynamic and platform dependant.
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37

If you want a const string that contains Environment.NewLine in it you can do something like this:

const string stringWithNewLine =
@"first line
second line
third line";

EDIT

Since this is in a const string it is done in compile time therefore it is the compiler's interpretation of a newline. I can't seem to find a reference explaining this behavior but, I can prove it works as intended. I compiled this code on both Windows and Ubuntu (with Mono) then disassembled and these are the results:

Disassemble on Windows Disassemble on Ubuntu

As you can see, in Windows newlines are interpreted as \r\n and on Ubuntu as \n

4 Comments

The compiler automatically adds an Environment.NewLine between each line in the text. So the string is interpreted as: "first line" + Environment.NewLine + "second line" + Environment.NewLine + "third line"
+1 Little known way of inserting newlines in string literals. Is there any reference for the behaviour you specify? Is it really Environment.NewLine or is it the compiler definition of a newline?
Are you sure it's not the code editor's newline character that gets inserted there? If you copy-paste that code into an editor on Windows, it'll probably get converted to \r\n. Do the same on a Unix-like platform and it'll probably get converted to \n instead.
Watch-out with this. If you checkout code on CI/CD server (like Teamcity, server side checkout) it will change CRLF to LF and there will not be new lines in string.
16
var sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.Append(first);
sb.AppendLine(); // which is equal to Append(Environment.NewLine);
sb.Append(second);
return sb.ToString();

7 Comments

Why would you do this rather than using first + Environment.NewLine + second which is more efficient and (IMO) easier to read?
@Jon: More efficient, really? I thought that String.Format will produce 1 string at once (but it's internally a bit slow because of culture specific concatenations, etc), while string concatenation - 1 resulting + 1 temporary, right?
@abatishchev: the compiler converts str+str+str to String.Concatenate, which directly builds just one output string (IIRC, if the strings are literals the concatenation is done in the compiler.
@Richard: i.e. multiple but one-line string concatenation ("a"+b+"c"+d, etc) by performance are equal to a single one? Or just converted to String.Concatenate(a,b,c,d,etc), right?
@abatishchev: That's why I didn't suggest string.Format in the comment. The string concatenation won't produce any temporary strings, because the compiler will call string.Concat(first, Environment.NewLine, second).
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3

One more way of convenient placement of Environment.NewLine in format string. The idea is to create string extension method that formats string as usual but also replaces {nl} in text with Environment.NewLine

Usage

   " X={0} {nl} Y={1}{nl} X+Y={2}".FormatIt(1, 2, 1+2);
   gives:
    X=1
    Y=2
    X+Y=3

Code

    ///<summary>
    /// Use "string".FormatIt(...) instead of string.Format("string, ...)
    /// Use {nl} in text to insert Environment.NewLine 
    ///</summary>
    ///<exception cref="ArgumentNullException">If format is null</exception>
    [StringFormatMethod("format")]
    public static string FormatIt(this string format, params object[] args)
    {
        if (format == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("format");

        return string.Format(format.Replace("{nl}", Environment.NewLine), args);
    }

Note

  1. If you want ReSharper to highlight your parameters, add attribute to the method above

    [StringFormatMethod("format")]

  2. This implementation is obviously less efficient than just String.Format

  3. Maybe one, who interested in this question would be interested in the next question too: Named string formatting in C#

Comments

3
string myText =
    @"<div class=""firstLine""></div>
      <div class=""secondLine""></div>
      <div class=""thirdLine""></div>";

that's not it:

string myText =
@"<div class=\"firstLine\"></div>
  <div class=\"secondLine\"></div>
  <div class=\"thirdLine\"></div>";

Comments

3

If you really want the New Line string as a constant, then you can do this:

public readonly string myVar = Environment.NewLine;

The user of the readonly keyword in C# means that this variable can only be assigned to once. You can find the documentation on it here. It allows the declaration of a constant variable whose value isn't known until execution time.

Comments

1
static class MyClass
{
   public const string NewLine="\n";
}

string x = "first line" + MyClass.NewLine + "second line"

3 Comments

-1: The system already defines Environment.NewLine -- see the other answers.
@Richard: OP, as far as I could understand him, wants to use inlined string literal, i.e. const string
@Richard Environment.NewLine is static not const
1

newer .net versions allow you to use $ in front of the literal which allows you to use variables inside like follows:

var x = $"Line 1{Environment.NewLine}Line 2{Environment.NewLine}Line 3";

3 Comments

A little bit of context wouldn't be bad.
This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review
@H.Pauwelynツ : Thx for the feedback. I added a bit of context. From my point of view the solution definitely answers the question.
1

If you are working with Web application you can try this.

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.AppendLine("Some text with line one");
sb.AppendLine("Some mpre text with line two");
MyLabel.Text = sb.ToString().Replace(Environment.NewLine, "<br />")

Comments

1

If I understand the question: Couple "\r\n" to get that new line below in a textbox. My example worked -

   string s1 = comboBox1.Text;     // s1 is the variable assigned to box 1, etc.
   string s2 = comboBox2.Text;

   string both = s1 + "\r\n" + s2;
   textBox1.Text = both;

A typical answer could be s1 s2 in the text box using defined type style.

Comments

0

I like more the "pythonic way"

List<string> lines = new List<string> {
    "line1",
    "line2",
    String.Format("{0} - {1} | {2}", 
        someVar,
        othervar, 
        thirdVar
    )
};

if(foo)
    lines.Add("line3");

return String.Join(Environment.NewLine, lines);

Comments

-1

Here, Environment.NewLine doesn't worked.

I put a "<br/>" in a string and worked.

Ex:

ltrYourLiteral.Text = "First line.<br/>Second Line.";

Comments

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