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What's the @ in front of a string for .NET?

I found this in a C# study book

DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(key.Key.ToString() + @":\");

The book however did not explain what the ‘@’ symbol was for. I tried searching MSDN C# Operators but its not listed there. I can guess that it allows the developer to not have to escape a ‘\’ or does it allow to not have any escape sequences?

What is this for and why would I use @":\" instead of ":\\"?

Thanks for the help

Edit: See the comment below for a similar question

Answer 1

It means to interpret the string literally (that is, you cannot escape any characters within the string if you use the @ prefix). It enhances readability in cases where it can be used.

For example, if you were working with a UNC path, this:

@"\\servername\share\folder"

is nicer than this:

"\\\\servername\\share\\folder"