Microsoft KB Archive/40160

= PRB: C2001: Newline in Constant for a String on Multiple Lines =

Article ID: 40160

Article Last Modified on 7/5/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft C Professional Development System 6.0
 * Microsoft C Professional Development System 6.0a
 * Microsoft C Professional Development System 6.0a
 * Microsoft C Professional Development System 6.0
 * Microsoft C Professional Development System 6.0a
 * Microsoft C/C++ Professional Development System 7.0
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 1.51
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 2.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 2.1

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This article was previously published under Q40160



SYMPTOMS
If program contains a string literal that is incorrectly split over multiple lines the following error will occur:

error C 2001: newline in constant

Several other errors may be caused by this also. This sample will also give errors C2065, C2121, C2143, and C2198 as a result of the newline errors.



CAUSE
This is a common programming mistake. Special considerations must be taken to split a constant string over several lines.



RESOLUTION
The best method is to change the format string, as in the following example (this works because strings separated only by spaces, tabs, and/or newlines are concatenated as specified by the ANSI standard): printf(&quot;\n %s&quot;         &quot; %s&quot;          &quot; %s&quot;,          &quot;this&quot;, &quot;is&quot;, &quot;it&quot;); The older and less-preferred method is to use continuation lines by typing a backslash followed by a carriage return at the end of a line, as in the following example: printf(&quot;\n %s\          %s\           %s&quot;,          &quot;this&quot;, &quot;is&quot;, &quot;it&quot;); This is not as good as the previous example because the spaces at the beginning of the continuation line become part of the string, unlike the first example.



Sample Code
void main {  printf(&quot;\n %s&quot;          &quot; %s&quot;          &quot; %s&quot;,          &quot;this&quot;, &quot;is&quot;, &quot;it&quot;); }
 * 1) include 

Additional query words: 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.10 6.00 6.00a 6.00ax 7.00 8.00 8.00c 9.00 9.10

Keywords: kbprb kbcompiler KB40160

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