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In double-quoted strings, the backslash character is used to introduce escape sequences that represent other characters. For example, ‘\n’ embeds a newline character in a double-quoted string and ‘\"’ embeds a double quote character. In single-quoted strings, backslash is not a special character. Here is an example showing the difference:
toascii ("\n") ⇒ 10 toascii ('\n') ⇒ [ 92 110 ]
Here is a table of all the escape sequences used in Octave (within double quoted strings). They are the same as those used in the C programming language.
\\
Represents a literal backslash, ‘\’.
\"
Represents a literal double-quote character, ‘"’.
\'
Represents a literal single-quote character, ‘'’.
\0
Represents the “nul” character, control-@, ASCII code 0.
\a
Represents the “alert” character, control-g, ASCII code 7.
\b
Represents a backspace, control-h, ASCII code 8.
\f
Represents a formfeed, control-l, ASCII code 12.
\n
Represents a newline, control-j, ASCII code 10.
\r
Represents a carriage return, control-m, ASCII code 13.
\t
Represents a horizontal tab, control-i, ASCII code 9.
\v
Represents a vertical tab, control-k, ASCII code 11.
In a single-quoted string there is only one escape sequence: you may insert a single quote character using two single quote characters in succession. For example,
'I can''t escape' ⇒ I can't escape
In scripts the two different string types can be distinguished if necessary
by using is_dq_string
and is_sq_string
.
Return true if x is a double-quoted character string.
See also: is_sq_string, ischar.
Return true if x is a single-quoted character string.
See also: is_dq_string, ischar.
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