Escape Sequences

A backslash occurring inside integers in 0' notation or inside quoted atoms or strings has special meaning, and indicates the start of an escape sequence. Character escaping can be turned off for compatibility with old code. The following escape sequences exist:

\b

backspace (character code 8)

\t

horizontal tab (character code 9)

\n

newline (character code 10)

\v

vertical tab (character code 11)

\f

form feed (character code 12)

\r

carriage return (character code 13)

\e

escape (character code 27)

\d

\^? SICStus only

delete (character code 127)

\a

alarm (character code 7)

\xhex-digit...\ ISO only

\xhex-digithex-digit SICStus only

the character code represented by the hexadecimal digits

\octal-digit...\ ISO only

\octal-digit?octal-digit?octal-digit SICStus only

the character code represented by the octal digits.

\^char SICStus only

the character code char mod 32, where char is a letter.

\<LFD>

A single newline character is ignored. The purpose of this is to allow a string or quoted-name to be spread over multiple lines.

\layout-char SICstus only

A single layout-char, for example a newline, is ignored.

\c SICStus only

All characters up to, but not including, the next non-layout character are ignored.

\\, \', \", \`

Stand for the character following the \.

\other SICStus only

A character not mentioned in this table stands for itself.