Difference between "\n" and Environment.NewLine

Question

What is the difference between two, if any (with respect to .Net)?

Isomorphism

Answer 1

Depends on the platform. On Windows it is actually "\r\n".

From MSDN:

A string containing "\r\n" for non-Unix platforms, or a string containing "\n" for Unix platforms.

Ms

Which UNIX platform does .NET run to Microsoft put into its doc? (I mean, a part from Mono.) – Pentahedron

@Pentahedron You could be writing to a file that will be opened in Unix platform. Or sending text in package that will be received by a unix platform. And in a few months .net will be running on Unix platforms. It already has begun – Igal

So just for clarity: on a non-Unix platform Environment.NewLine is \r\n but \n is also called "new line". Why didn't they just call the latter by its more well-known name "line feed" and cut out the confusion? They could have used \l also. – Counterattack

Answer 2

Exact implementation of Environment.NewLine from the source code:

The implementation in .NET 4.6.1:

/*===================================NewLine====================================
**Action: A property which returns the appropriate newline string for the given
**        platform.
**Returns: \r\n on Win32.
**Arguments: None.
**Exceptions: None.
==============================================================================*/
public static String NewLine {
    get {
        Contract.Ensures(Contract.Result<String>() != null);
        return "\r\n";
    }
}

source

---

The implementation in .NET Core:

/*===================================NewLine====================================
**Action: A property which returns the appropriate newline string for the
**        given platform.
**Returns: \r\n on Win32.
**Arguments: None.
**Exceptions: None.
==============================================================================*/
public static String NewLine {
    get {
        Contract.Ensures(Contract.Result() != null);
#if !PLATFORM_UNIX
        return "\r\n";
#else
        return "\n";
#endif // !PLATFORM_UNIX
    }
}

source (in System.Private.CoreLib)

public static string NewLine => "\r\n";

source (in System.Runtime.Extensions)

Spiracle

yeah :) For some reason I was expecting the .NET implementation to be some huge complicated function – Ethiopic

Considering the simplicity of the source in this instance, it probably should be the answer. – Corpse

Answer 3

As others have mentioned, Environment.NewLine returns a platform-specific string for beginning a new line, which should be:

• "\r\n" (\u000D\u000A) for Windows
• "\n" (\u000A) for Unix
• "\r" (\u000D) for Mac (if such implementation existed)

Note that when writing to the console, Environment.NewLine is not strictly necessary. The console stream will translate "\n" to the appropriate new-line sequence, if necessary.

Griffiths

The Mac implementation does exist. Just Mono. Runs on anything. – Penny

Just a note, that would be old macs; new (OSX) macs use \n – Attenweiler

@Dykam, yeah but it runs real slow-like on my HP48gx – Continuant

@cod3monk3y: That's fast compared to my HP48sx! – Dung

As others have mentioned and as is visible in the .Net source also attached to this question, this answer is not correct. – Corpse

@ChrisWalter this answer could be correct back in 2009. Today, it is outdated. – Spiracle

@Spiracle 2009? Apple hasn't used CR for 17 years; not since the initial release of macOS. This "non-Unix" thing is misleading. Windows is the only relevant OS that doesn't use LF. Linux, macOS, the BSDs, BeOS, RISC OS, and many more all use LFs. – Stollings

@Stollings just saying that it might have been true in 2009, not that it was. I didnt check. – Spiracle

Answer 4

Environment.NewLine will return the newline character for the corresponding platform in which your code is running

you will find this very useful when you deploy your code in linux on the Mono framework

Forzando

Answer 5

From the docs ...

A string containing "\r\n" for non-Unix platforms, or a string containing "\n" for Unix platforms.

Alyssa

Answer 6

You might get into trouble when you try to display multi-line message separated with "\r\n".

It is always a good practice to do things in a standard way, and use Environment.NewLine

Vastitude

Answer 7

Environment.NewLine will give "\r\n" when run on Windows. If you are generating strings for Unix based environments, you don't want the "\r".

Mosstrooper