Difference between "\n" and Environment.NewLine

228
votes

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

7
c#.netcross-platform

7 Answers

220
votes

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.

171
votes

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)

70
votes

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.

25
votes

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

8
votes

From the docs ...

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

5
votes

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

4
votes

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".