Question

C# break string literal across multiple lines

Asked by: rschaaf

I'd like to break a very long string literal across multiple lines in the source code.  In VB, this is done with the '_' (underscore) character dangling at the end.  How can I do this in C#?  I can't seem to find a line continuation character for C#.

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Asked On
2004-11-08 at 07:32:41ID21198521
Tags

string

,

lines

,

break

,

multiple

Topic

C# Programming Language

Participating Experts
3
Points
50
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: WinterMuteUKPosted on 2004-11-08 at 09:00:29ID: 12524997

You could do it like this:

string str =
     "thi" +
     "s is a string";

admittedly it's not exactly the same.

 

by: tomvergotePosted on 2004-11-08 at 09:30:46ID: 12525282

the semicolon serves as a line ending, so you can just type breaks, they don't mean anything in c#, the command finishes with the ;

 

by: AvonWyssPosted on 2004-11-08 at 10:52:18ID: 12526113

C# sees line breaks as white space, that is, having the same meaning like a space or a tab. Therefore, everywhere where you can add spaces, you can also add line breaks without the need for a line contuinuation character.

Note that you can also span a string across multiple lines when using the literal string prefix:
string str=@"this is a string.
it contains two lines (not just in the source code)!";

Hope this helps.

 

by: rschaafPosted on 2004-11-08 at 11:16:52ID: 12526380

The suggestion from AvonWyss helps, but it's still not the answer I'm lookng for.  In your example, "This is a string" and "it contains two lines" will be displayed on two lines when that string is displayed in a MessageBox, for example.  There is no real continuation happening.

 

by: AvonWyssPosted on 2004-11-08 at 11:55:58ID: 12526813

Well. If you write a literal string, it will also contain the line breaks. This is intentional, as you may have guessed by the contents of that two-line string. If you want to span it without line breaks, use the knowledge that "a"+"b" is the same as "ab" and that you may add any number and any type of whitespace between the string parts and operators (here the + operator):
string str="a"+
"b";

 

by: rschaafPosted on 2004-11-08 at 14:22:49ID: 12528131

Unless someone else chimes in, I'll assume that there is no line continuation character (analogous to the '_' char in VB).

 

by: WinterMuteUKPosted on 2004-11-09 at 00:49:37ID: 12531053

There isn't a line continuation character for the reason that tomvergote gave, and both my and AvonWyss' suggestions of the concatenation character '+' is the only way to do what you are looking for.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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