JavaScript \n Metacharacter | RegEx Match New Line

The JavaScript \n metacharacter is used to match a new line in a specified string using a JavaScript regular expression. For example:

HTML with JavaScript Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

   <p id="xyz"></p>

   <script>
      let myString = "JavaScript is Fun.\nIs not it?";
      let pattern = /\n/;
      document.getElementById("xyz").innerHTML = myString.search(pattern);
   </script>
   
</body>
</html>
Output

Since the new line character, that is, \n is available at index number 18 in the specified string, the output produced by the above JavaScript code is 18.

Note: The search() method is used to search a substring (value) in a string using a regular expression.

In the above example, the string "JavaScript is Fun.\nIs not it?" is assigned to the variable "myString." The "\n" escape sequence represents a newline character, which breaks the string into lines.

A regular expression that matches the newline character is assigned to the "pattern" variable. To indicate that the regular expression is a pattern to be searched for, it is enclosed in forward slashes (/).

The search() method is called on the "myString" variable with the "pattern" regular expression as an argument. The search() method returns the index of the first occurrence of the pattern in the string, or -1 if the pattern is not found.

The innerHTML property of the "p" element with the ID "xyz" is set to the result of the search() method. In this case, it will be the index of the first newline character in the string, which is 18.

Now, before closing the discussion on the JavaScript "\n" metacharacter, I'm willing to include one more example that might help you understand this topic more. So here is an example:

HTML with JavaScript Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

   <script>
      // Declare a string variable containing a line break
      let myString = "Hello\nWorld!";

      // Use console.log() to display the string to the console
      console.log(myString);
   </script>
  
</body>
</html>
Output
Hello
World!

In the preceding example, I used "\n" between the words "Hello" and "World" within the string "Hello\nWorld," which is then assigned to the variable "myString." As a result, when I used "console.log()" to print the value of the variable "myString," the output console would first display the word "Hello," then a line break, and finally the word "World."

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