Multi-Line String Literals in C

In C , defining a multi-line string literal is not as straightforward as it is in some other languages like Perl. However, there are a few techniques you can use to achieve this:

Concatenated String Literals

One method is to utilize the fact that adjacent string literals in C are concatenated by the compiler. By breaking your string into multiple lines, you can create a single, multi-line string:

const char *text =
  "This text is pretty long, but will be "
  "concatenated into just a single string. "
  "The disadvantage is that you have to quote "
  "each part, and newlines must be literal as "
  "usual.";

Note that the indentation doesn't matter as it falls outside the quotes.

String with Escaped Newlines

Another approach involves using a string literal with escaped newlines. Instead of using newline characters in the string itself, you can escape them with backslashes (\) like so:

const char *text2 =
  "Here, on the other hand, I've gone crazy \\\
and really let the literal span several lines, \\\
without bothering with quoting each line's \\\
content. This works, but you can't indent.";

Remember, the backslashes must be immediately before the end of each line to escape the newline. This method works but prevents indentation from being preserved.