Special JavaScript characters

You can use a backslash in JavaScript to add special characters to a text string.

Insert special characters

A backslash is used to insert ellipsis, line breaks, quotation marks, and other special characters into a text string.

See the following JavaScript code:

var txt="We are the so-called "Vikings" from the north."document.write(txt)

In JavaScript, strings start or end with single or double quotation marks. This means that the above string will be truncated to: We are the so-called.

To solve this problem, you must add a backslash (\) before the quotation marks in "Viking (\). In this way, each double quotation mark can be converted to a literal string.

var txt="We are the so-called \"Vikings\" from the north."document.write(txt)

Now JavaScript can output the correct text string: We are the so-called "Vikings" from the north.

This is another example:

document.write ("You \& me are singing!") 

The preceding example generates the following output:

You & me are singing!

The following table lists other special characters that can be added to a text string using a backslash:

Code	Output
\'	Single quotes
\"	Double quotation marks
\&	And number
\\	Backslash
\ N	Line Break
\ R	Carriage Return
\ T	Tab
\ B	Escape Character
\ F	Page feed