What is Escape sequence...?

Escape sequence characters

Q) What is the escape sequence? What is its purpose? Explain the meaning of the following?

1. \b
2. \r
3. \f 
4. \n

• C supports a special type of character which is the combination of backslash (/)and another character e.g. in is known as escape sequence character.
• The \ is considered as an escape character. This causes an escape from some normal interpretation about a string so that the next character means recognized essentially one having a special meaning.

Following are the escape sequence characters in C with their meanings:

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Character meaning Escape sequence

\a  - Audible alert (beep)

\b  - Backspace

\n  - New line

\t   - Horizontal tab

\f   - Form feed

\r  - Carriage return

\\  - Backslash

\'  - single quote

\"   - Double quote

\v   - Vertical tab

\?   - Question mark

\O   - Null character

• \a

It gives an audible beep.

printf("\a")

• \b

This character works as backspace.

 printf ("abcd\b");

  printf ("xyz");

output:

  abcxyz

• \n

It display the new line on screen

printf("abcd\nxyz");

output:

abcd

xyz

• \t

It display the horizontal tab.

 printf("abcd\txyz");

output:

abcd  xyz

• \f

This character works as a form feed.

• \r

This character works as a carriage return.

printf("abc\rxyz");

output:

xyz