String and character literals provide an escape mechanism that allows express character codes that would otherwise not be allowed in the literal. An escape sequence consists of a backslash character () followed by one or more other characters. The same sequences are valid in both character and string literals.

The complete set of escape sequences is as follows:

Escape sequence meaning:

\ Denotes a backslash () character' Denotes a single-quote (') character" Denotes a double-quote (") character
 Denotes a line feed (LF) character
 Denotes a carriage return (CR) character	 Denotes a horizontal tab (HT) characterf Denotes a form feed (FF) character Denotes a backspace (BS) character Denotes a character code in the range 0 to 255. 

The in the above consists of one, two or three octal digits (‘0’ through ‘7’) which represent a number between 0 and 255 (decimal).