.NET "default line terminator"?

Question

Is there any way to figure out what .NET is using as its "default line terminator"? For example, documentation for StringBuilder.AppendLine(String) says it "Appends a copy of the specified string followed by the default line terminator...". Several text-related classes in .NET refer to the same concept.

Is there any way to programmatically figure out what is being used as the line terminator (at runtime)? Or is it safe to assume that it will always be "\r\n" for a Windows machine? I'd rather not hard-code that value into my code if I can avoid it.

Pecten

Answer 1

StringBuilder.AppendLine will use Environment.NewLine, which is "\r\n" for non-Unix platforms and "\n" for Unix platforms.

It will always be "\r\n" for a Windows machine, but you can use Environment.NewLine in lieu of a hard-coded value.

thanks to @Guffa for verifying this

Spadix

Ah perfect, I knew there must be something like that. Thanks! – Pecten

wish there was a way to change the default line terminator for a particular StringBuilder object – Damnedest

Answer 2

This is the code from the StringBuilder.AppendLine(string) method (using .NET Reflector):

[ComVisible(false)]
public StringBuilder AppendLine(string value)
{
   this.Append(value);
   return this.Append(Environment.NewLine);
}

As you see, it's indeed using the Environment.NewLine property.

Dinorahdinosaur

Answer 3

On Mac, the newline was '\r' that is until they based their OS on linux. Now its '\n'.

Cai

Just a minor nit-pick: today's Mac OS is actually based on UNIX, not linux. And the first UNIX-based version came our in early 2001, about a year before .NET was released. So the '\r' notation has not been relevant for some time. – Pecten