Escape Sequence

Escape sequences are special characters that are used to represent non-printing characters or to control the behavior of output streams. They are prefixed with a backslash (\).

Types of Escape Sequences

There are three types of escape sequences in C++:

• Character escape sequences: These escape sequences represent non-printing characters, such as newline, tab, and backspace.
• Hexadecimal escape sequences: These escape sequences represent characters using their hexadecimal values.
• Octal escape sequences: These escape sequences represent characters using their octal values.

Common Escape Sequences

Here are some of the most common escape sequences in C++:

Using Escape Sequences

Escape sequences can be used in string and character literals. For example, the following code prints the string “Hello, world!” followed by a newline character:

std::cout << "Hello, world!" << std::endl;

The std::endl object represents the newline character. It is equivalent to the escape sequence \n.

Escape sequences can also be used to represent non-printing characters, such as the tab character. For example, the following code prints the string “Hello, world!” followed by a tab character:

std::cout << "Hello, world!" << '\t';

Example

Here are some more examples of how to use escape sequences in C++:

// Print the string "This is a quote \" inside a string." 
std::cout << "This is a quote \" inside a string."; 

// Print the character 'a' with a backspace before it. 
std::cout << '\b' << 'a';

// Print the string "Hello, world!" followed by a newline character and a tab character. 
std::cout << "Hello, world!" << std::endl << '\t';

Escape sequences are a powerful tool that can be used to control the behavior of output streams and to represent non-printing characters in C++.