What's the cleanest way to write a multiline string in JavaScript? [duplicate]

Answer 1

This will only work in browsers with E4X support - I wish we could use it in IE

var str = <><![CDATA[

   Look, a multi-line
   string! < " // ' ? &

]]></>.toString();

Answer 2

You could do

str = "\
line 1\
line 2\
line 3";

As mentioned in the comments, javascript parsers handle this fine (it works in all major browsers), but is not officially part of ECMA Script syntax. As such it may or may not work with compressors, error checkers, and isn't guaranteed to work in browsers.

This may be more readable, but isn't the 'best' way to do it. Maybe ECMA script will support something like c#'s @"" someday.

Answer 3

I like this version (different than yours just in formatting of the code):

var str = "line 1"
        + "line 2"
        + "line 3";

Answer 4

Almost identical to NickFitz's answer:

var str = [""
    ,"line 1"
    ,"line 2"
    ,"line 3"
].join("");
// str will contain "line1line2line3"

The difference, the code is slightly more maintainable because the lines can be re-ordered without regard to where the commas are. No syntax errors.

Answer 5

Yes! You can use the \ character to have JavaScript ignore end of line characters.

str = 'line 1 \
line 2 \
line 3';

However, as pointed out by Elzo Valugi, this will not validate using JSLint.

Answer 6

FYI. The way you suggest it is the correct way and better than the other answers. JsLint only validates your version.