2.3 Escape Sequences
Finally, let’s look at escape sequences. Escape sequences are used to display special “unprintable” characters such as a tab or a newline.
To display these characters, we need to use the \ (backslash) character to escape characters that otherwise have a different meaning.
For instance, to print a tab, we type the backslash character before the letter t, like this: \t. Without the \ character, the letter t will be printed. With it, a tab is printed. Hence, if you add
console.log('Hello\tWorld');
to chap2.js, you’ll get
Hello World
as the output.
Other common uses of the backslash character are shown below:
To print a new line (\n)
Example:
console.log("Hello\nWorld");
Output:
Hello
World
To print the backslash character itself (\\)
Example:
console.log("\\");
Output:
\
To print a double quote, so that the double quote does not signal the end of the string (\")
**Under normal circumstances, double quotes are used to signal the start and end of a string. You'll learn about strings in the next chapter.
Example:
console.log("I am 5'9\" tall");
Output:
I am 5'9" tall
To print a single quote, so that the single quote does not signal the end of the string (\')
**Like double quotes, single quotes are also used to signal the start and end of a string unless they are preceded by the \ character.
Example:
console.log('I am 5\'9" tall');
Output:
I am 5'9" tall