Escape sequences in C

Many programming languages support a concept called Escape Sequence. When a character is preceded by a backslash (\), it is called an escape sequence and it has a special meaning to the compiler. For example, \n in the following statement is a valid character and it is called a new line character −

char ch = '\n';

Here, character n has been preceded by a backslash (\), it has special meaning which is a new line but keep in mind that backslash (\) has special meaning with a few characters only. The following statement will not convey any meaning in C programming and it will be assumed as an invalid statement −

char ch = '\1';

The following table lists the escape sequences available in C programming language −

Example

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
   char ch1;
   char ch2;
   char ch3;
   char ch4;
   ch1 = '\t';
   ch2 = '\n';
   printf( "Test for tabspace %c and a newline %c will start here", ch1, ch2);
}

Output

Test for tabspace and a newline
will start here