Java: PrintWriter and newlines in a string

Question

My question is pretty straight forward, if I have a single long string with alot of "\\n" newlines within it, ie:

strings = "Hey\nThere\nFriend\n"

And use a PrintWriter in Java to do the following:

PrintWriter save = new PrintWriter("test.txt");
save.println(strings);
save.close();

Will the file I end up with be formatted with the \\n? ie the file will have:

Hey
There
Friend

Or will it have:

Hey\nThere\nFriend

If it's the latter, can someone guide me on how I might change my code (and understanding of how PrintWriter works) to create the former output?

Answer 1

In fact, \\n will work but only for Unix based OS. Windows based OS use \\r\\n as separator.

You should avoid using specific OS line separator if you want to write a portable code.
Favor System.lineSeparator() to not be OS dependent.
Note also that PrintWriter provides println() to achieve a break line that is not OS dependent (even if it is not necessary useful for you use case)

Answer 2

You will get a text file containing a single text line Hey\\nThere\\nFriend\\n followed by your operating system new-line sequence (inserted by println() ).

The meaning of \\n depends on the operating system and possibly the text editor. On Linux \\n usually will be interpreted as new-line sequence but on Windows the new-line sequence is \\r\\n so most text editors (eg native Notepad) will display a single HeyThereFriend line.

Answer 3

On windows platform \\n means char(13) +Char(10) you can use

String nl = Character.toString ((char) 13)+Character.toString ((char) 10);  
String strings = "Hey"+nl+"There"+nl+"Friend"+nl;
System.out.print(strings);