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javaoctal

String illegal escape charcter

While answering one of the question, I came across this interesting situation.

If I have string like the following, Netbeans does not complain that it's an illegal start of expression. 

String temp="\19825655.";

As soon as I remove '1' it complains that it's an illegal start of expression.

String temp="\9825655.";

couldn't figure out the reason for this behavior. Any input would be appreciated.

Observation: It seems \9 and \8 has special meaning. Only for \9 and \8 I am getting illegal start of expression. All other combinations it is not complaining.

Solution

  • \1 is an octal escape code. Check it out in the JLS in Escape Sequences for Character and String Literals.