[javascript] JavaScript string newline character?

Is \n the universal newline character sequence in Javascript for all platforms? If not, how do I determine the character for the current environment?

I'm not asking about the HTML newline element (<BR/>). I'm asking about the newline character sequence used within JavaScript strings.

Get a line separator for the current browser:

function getLineSeparator() {
  var textarea = document.createElement("textarea");
  textarea.value = "\n"; 
  return textarea.value;
}

You can use `` quotes (wich are below Esc button) with ES6. So you can write something like this:

var text = `fjskdfjslfjsl
skfjslfkjsldfjslfjs
jfsfkjslfsljs`;

Don't use "\n". Just try this:

var string = "this\
is a multi\
line\
string";

Just enter a back-slash and keep on truckin'! Works like a charm.

The \n is just fine for all cases I've encountered. I you are working with web, use \n and don't worry about it (unless you have had any newline-related issues).

yes use \n, unless you are generating html code, in which you want to use <br />

I believe it is -- when you are working with JS strings.

If you are generating HTML, though, you will have to use <br /> tags (not \n, as you're not dealing with JS anymore)

printAccountSummary: function()
        {return "Welcome!" + "\n" + "Your balance is currently $1000 and your interest rate is 1%."}
};
console.log(savingsAccount.printAccountSummary()); // method

Prints:

Welcome!
Your balance is currently $1000 and your interest rate is 1%.

A practical observation... In my NodeJS script I have the following function:

function writeToLogFile (message) {
    fs.appendFile('myserverlog.txt', Date() + " " + message + "\r\n", function (err) {
        if (err) throw err;
    });
}

First I had only "\n" but I noticed that when I open the log file in Notepad, it shows all entries on the same line. Notepad++ on the other hand shows the entries each on their own line. After changing the code to "\r\n", even Notepad shows every entry on its own line.

you can use <br/> and the document.write/, document.writeln one.

It might be easiest to just handle all cases of the new line character instead of checking which case then applying it. For example, if you need to replace the newline then do the following:

htmlstring = stringContainingNewLines.replace(/(\r\n|\n|\r)/gm, "<br>");

Email link function i use "%0D%0A"

function sendMail() {   
var bodydata="Before "+ "%0D%0A";
    bodydata+="After"

var MailMSG = "mailto:[email protected]" 
         + "[email protected]" 
         + "&subject=subject" 
         + "&body=" + bodydata; 
window.location.href = MailMSG; 
} 

[HTML]

<a href="#" onClick="sendMail()">Contact Us</a>

Yes, it is universal.

Although '\n' is the universal newline characters, you have to keep in mind that, depending on your input, new line characters might be preceded by carriage return characters ('\r').

A note - when using ExtendScript JavaScript (the Adobe Scripting language used in applications like Photoshop CS3+), the character to use is "\r". "\n" will be interpreted as a font character, and many fonts will thus have a block character instead.

For example (to select a layer named 'Note' and add line feeds after all periods):

var layerText = app.activeDocument.artLayers.getByName('Note').textItem.contents;
layerText = layerText.replace(/\. /g,".\r");

I had the problem of expressing newline with \n or \r\n.
Magically the character \r which is used for carriage return worked for me like a newline.
So in some cases, it is useful to consider \r too.