[c#] Carriage return and Line feed... Are both required in C#?

When inserting a new line character into a string I have usually done this:

str = "First line\nSecond line";

In C#, is this the standard practice? Should I also include the 'carriage return' character '\r'? Are there any difference between the following, and if so, what are they?

str = "First line\nSecond line";
str = "First line\r\nSecond line";

If using both 'carriage return' and 'line feed' is standard practice, is there a specific order and why?

Note: I read a few other posts on SO but didn't find an answer specific to .NET/C#.

Edit: After testing a little app, I didn't not see any difference between '\n' and '\n\r' or '\r\n'.

It's always a good idea, and while it's not always required, the Windows standard is to include both.

\n actually represents a Line Feed, or the number 10, and canonically a Line Feed means just "move down one row" on terminals and teletypes.

\r represents CR, a Carriage Return, or the number 13. On Windows, Unix, and most terminals, a CR moves the cursor to the beginning of the line. (This is not the case for 8-bit computers: most of those do advance to the next line with a CR.)

Anyway, some processes, such as the text console, might add a CR automatically when you send an LF. However, since the CR simply moves to the start of the line, there's no harm in sending the CR twice.

On the other hand, dialog boxes, text boxes, and other display elements require both CR and LF to properly start a new line.

Since there's really no downside to sending both, and both are required in some situations, the simplest policy is to use both, if you're not sure.

I know this is a little old, but for anyone stumbling across this page should know there is a difference between \n and \r\n.

The \r\n gives a CRLF end of line and the \n gives an LF end of line character. There is very little difference to the eye in general.

Create a .txt from the string and then try and open in notepad (normal not notepad++) and you will notice the difference

SHA,PCT,PRACTICE,BNF CODE,BNF NAME,ITEMS,NIC,ACT COST,QUANTITY,PERIOD
Q44,01C,N81002,0101021B0AAALAL,Sod Algin/Pot Bicarb_Susp S/F,3,20.48,19.05,2000,201901
Q44,01C,N81002,0101021B0AAAPAP,Sod Alginate/Pot Bicarb_Tab Chble 500mg,1,3.07,2.86,60,201901

The above is using 'CRLF' and the below is what 'LF only' would look like (There is a character that cant be seen where the LF shows).

SHA,PCT,PRACTICE,BNF CODE,BNF NAME,ITEMS,NIC,ACT COST,QUANTITY,PERIODQ44,01C,N81002,0101021B0AAALAL,Sod Algin/Pot Bicarb_Susp S/F,3,20.48,19.05,2000,201901Q44,01C,N81002,0101021B0AAAPAP,Sod Alginate/Pot Bicarb_Tab Chble 500mg,1,3.07,2.86,60,201901

If the Line Ends need to be corrected and the file is small enough in size, you can change the line endings in NotePad++ (or paste into word then back into Notepad - although this will make CRLF only).

This may cause some functions that read these files to potenitially no longer function (The example lines given are from GP Prescribing data - England. The file has changed from a CRLF Line end to an LF line end). This stopped an SSIS job from running and failed as couldn't read the LF line endings.

Source of Line Ending Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline#Representations_in_different_character_encoding_specifications

Hope this helps someone in future :) CRLF = Windows based, LF or CF are from Unix based systems (Linux, MacOS etc.)

A carriage return \r moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line. A newline \n causes a drop to the next line and possibly the beginning of the next line; That's the platform dependent part that Alexei notes above (on a *nix system \n gives you both a carriage return and a newline, in windows it doesn't)

What you use depends on what you're trying to do. If I wanted to make a little spinning thing on a console I would do str = "|\r/\r-\r\\\r"; for example.

It depends on where you're displaying the text. On the console or a textbox for example, \n will suffice. On a RichTextBox I think you need both.