Question

Why can’t I use \u000D and \u000A as CR and LF in Java? It’s giving an error when I compile the code:

String x = "\u000A hello";//Error - Illegal escape character in string literal.

Answer 1

Unicode escapes are pre-processed before the compiler is run. Therefore, if you put \u000A in a String literal like this:

String someString = "foo\u000Abar";

It will be compiled exactly as if you wrote:

String someString = "foo
bar";

Stick to \r (carriage return; 0x0D) and \n (line feed; 0x0A)

Bonus: You can always have fun with this, especially given the limitations on most syntax highlighters. Next time you’ve got a sec, try running this code:

public class FalseIsTrue {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        if ( false == true ) { //these characters are magic: \u000a\u007d\u007b
            System.out.println("false is true!");
        }
    }
}