Creating multiline strings in JavaScript

Google's JavaScript style guide recommends to use string concatenation instead of escaping newlines because the latter isn't a part of ECMAScript:

Do not do this:

var myString = 'A rather long string of English text, an error message \ actually that just keeps going and going -- an error \ message to make the Energizer bunny blush (right through \ those Schwarzenegger shades)! Where was I? Oh yes, \ you\'ve got an error and all the extraneous whitespace is \ just gravy. Have a nice day.';

The whitespace at the beginning of each line can't be safely stripped at compile time; whitespace after the slash will result in tricky errors; and while most script engines support this, it is not part of ECMAScript.

Use string concatenation instead:

var myString = 'A rather long string of English text, an error message ' + 'actually that just keeps going and going -- an error ' + 'message to make the Energizer bunny blush (right through ' + 'those Schwarzenegger shades)! Where was I? Oh yes, ' + 'you\'ve got an error and all the extraneous whitespace is ' + 'just gravy. Have a nice day.';

Update

In EcmaScript 6, you'll be able to use backticks for Template Strings, known in the spec as a NoSubstitutionTemplate:

var htmlString = `Say hello to 
multi-line
strings!`;

I think you can try this and other features by first downloading canary chrome and then turning on Enable Experimental JavaScript

the pattern text = <<"HERE" This Is A Multiline String HERE is not available in js (I remember using it much in my good old Perl days).

To keep oversight with complex or long multiline strings I sometimes use an array pattern:

var myString = 
   ['<div id="someId">',
    'some content<br />',
    '<a href="#someRef">someRefTxt</a>',
    '</div>'
   ].join('\n');

or the pattern anonymous already showed (escape newline), which can be an ugly block in your code:

    var myString = 
       '<div id="someId"> \
some content<br /> \
<a href="#someRef">someRefTxt</a> \
</div>';

Here's another weird but working 'trick'¹:

var myString = (function () {/*
   <div id="someId">
     some content<br />
     <a href="#someRef">someRefTxt</a>
    </div>        
*/}).toString().match(/[^]*\/\*([^]*)\*\/\}$/)[1];

external edit: jsfiddle

[addition 2015]
ES6 supports spanning strings over multiple lines using template strings:

let str = `This is a text
    with multiple lines.
    Escapes are interpreted,
    \n is a newline.`;
let str = String.raw`This is a text
    with multiple lines.
    Escapes are not interpreted,
    \n is not a newline.`;

¹ Note: this will be lost after minifying/obfuscating your code

You can have multiline strings in pure JavaScript.

This method is based on the serialization of functions, which is defined to be implementation-dependent. It does work in the most browsers (see below), but there's no guarantee that it will still work in the future, so do not rely on it.

Using the following function:

function hereDoc(f) {
  return f.toString().
      replace(/^[^\/]+\/\*!?/, '').
      replace(/\*\/[^\/]+$/, '');
}

You can have here-documents like this:

var tennysonQuote = hereDoc(function() {/*!
  Theirs not to make reply,
  Theirs not to reason why,
  Theirs but to do and die
*/});

The method has successfully been tested in the following browsers (not mentioned = not tested):

• IE 4 - 10
• Opera 9.50 - 12 (not in 9-)
• Safari 4 - 6 (not in 3-)
• Chrome 1 - 45
• Firefox 17 - 21 (not in 16-)
• Rekonq 0.7.0 - 0.8.0
• Not supported in Konqueror 4.7.4

Be careful with your minifier, though. It tends to remove comments. For the YUI compressor, a comment starting with /*! (like the one I used) will be preserved.

I think a real solution would be to use CoffeeScript.

You can do this...

var string = 'This is\n' +
'a multiline\n' + 
'string';

I came up with this very jimmy rigged method of a multi lined string. Since converting a function into a string also returns any comments inside the function you can use the comments as your string using a multilined comment /**/. You just have to trim off the ends and you have your string.

var myString = function(){/*
    This is some
    awesome multi-lined
    string using a comment 
    inside a function 
    returned as a string.
    Enjoy the jimmy rigged code.
*/}.toString().slice(14,-3)

alert(myString)

I'm surprised I didn't see this, because it works everywhere I've tested it and is very useful for e.g. templates:

<script type="bogus" id="multi">
    My
    multiline
    string
</script>
<script>
    alert($('#multi').html());
</script>

Does anybody know of an environment where there is HTML but it doesn't work?

I solved this by outputting a div, making it hidden, and calling the div id by jQuery when i needed it.

e.g.

<div id="UniqueID" style="display:none;">
     Strings
     On
     Multiple
     Lines
     Here
</div>

Then when i need to get the string, i just use the following jQuery:

$('#UniqueID').html();

Which returns my text on multiple lines. If i call

alert($('#UniqueID').html();

I get:

I like this syntax and indendation:

string = 'my long string...\n'
       + 'continue here\n'
       + 'and here.';

(but actually can't be considered as multiline string)

Using script tags:

• add a <script>...</script> block containing your multiline text into head tag;

• get your multiline text as is... (watch out for text encoding: UTF-8, ASCII)

  <script>
  
      // pure javascript
      var text = document.getElementById("mySoapMessage").innerHTML ;
  
      // using JQuery's document ready for safety
      $(document).ready(function() {
  
          var text = $("#mySoapMessage").html(); 
  
      });
  
  </script>
  
  <script id="mySoapMessage">
  
      <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:typ="...">
         <soapenv:Header/>
         <soapenv:Body>
            <typ:getConvocadosElement>
               ...
            </typ:getConvocadosElement>
         </soapenv:Body>
      </soapenv:Envelope>
  
      <!-- this comment will be present on your string -->
      //uh-oh, javascript comments...  SOAP request will fail 
  
  
  </script>
  

There's this library that makes it beautiful:

https://github.com/sindresorhus/multiline

Before

var str = '' +
'<!doctype html>' +
'<html>' +
'   <body>' +
'       <h1>❤ unicorns</h1>' +
'   </body>' +
'</html>' +
'';

After

var str = multiline(function(){/*
<!doctype html>
<html>
    <body>
        <h1>❤ unicorns</h1>
    </body>
</html>
*/});

There are multiple ways to achieve this

1. Slash concatenation

  var MultiLine=  '1\
    2\
    3\
    4\
    5\
    6\
    7\
    8\
    9';

2. regular concatenation

var MultiLine = '1'
+'2'
+'3'
+'4'
+'5';

3. Array Join concatenation

var MultiLine = [
'1',
'2',
'3',
'4',
'5'
].join('');

Performance wise, Slash concatenation (first one) is the fastest.

Refer this test case for more details regarding the performance

to sum up, I have tried 2 approaches listed here in user javascript programming (Opera 11.01):

• this one didn't work: Multiline strings in Javascript
• this worked fairly well, I have also figured out how to make it look good in Notepad++ source view: Multiline strings in Javascript

So I recommend the working approach for Opera user JS users. Unlike what the author was saying:

It doesn't work on firefox or opera; only on IE, chrome and safari.

It DOES work in Opera 11. At least in user JS scripts. Too bad I can't comment on individual answers or upvote the answer, I'd do it immediately. If possible, someone with higher privileges please do it for me.

Downvoters: This code is supplied for information only.

This has been tested in Fx 19 and Chrome 24 on Mac

DEMO

var new_comment; /*<<<EOF 
    <li class="photobooth-comment">
       <span class="username">
          <a href="#">You</a>
       </span>
       <span class="comment-text">
          $text
       </span>
       <span class="comment-time">
          2d
       </span>
    </li>
EOF*/
// note the script tag here is hardcoded as the FIRST tag 
new_comment=document.currentScript.innerHTML.split("EOF")[1]; 
alert(new_comment.replace('$text','Here goes some text'));

Updated for 2015: it's six years later now: most people use a module loader, and the main module systems each have ways of loading templates. It's not inline, but the most common type of multiline string are templates, and templates should generally be kept out of JS anyway.

require.js: 'require text'.

Using require.js 'text' plugin, with a multiline template in template.html

var template = require('text!template.html')

NPM/browserify: the 'brfs' module

Browserify uses a 'brfs' module to load text files. This will actually build your template into your bundled HTML.

var fs = require("fs");
var template = fs.readFileSync(template.html', 'utf8');

Easy.

If you're willing to use the escaped newlines, they can be used nicely. It looks like a document with a page border.

This works in IE, Safari, Chrome and Firefox:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="crazy_idea" thorn_in_my_side='<table  border="0">
                        <tr>
                            <td ><span class="mlayouttablecellsdynamic">PACKAGE price $65.00</span></td>
                        </tr>
                    </table>'></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
    alert($(".crazy_idea").attr("thorn_in_my_side"));
</script>

My extension to http://stackoverflow.com/a/15558082/80404. It expects comment in a form /*! any multiline comment */ where symbol ! is used to prevent removing by minification (at least for YUI compressor)

Function.prototype.extractComment = function() {
    var startComment = "/*!";
    var endComment = "*/";
    var str = this.toString();

    var start = str.indexOf(startComment);
    var end = str.lastIndexOf(endComment);

    return str.slice(start + startComment.length, -(str.length - end));
};

Example:

var tmpl = function() { /*!
 <div class="navbar-collapse collapse">
    <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
    </ul>
 </div>
*/}.extractComment();

You can use TypeScript (JavaScript SuperSet), it supports multiline strings, and transpiles back down to pure JavaScript without overhead:

var templates = {
    myString: `this is
a multiline
string` 
}

alert(templates.myString);

If you'd want to accomplish the same with plain JavaScript:

var templates = 
{
 myString: function(){/*
    This is some
    awesome multi-lined
    string using a comment 
    inside a function 
    returned as a string.
    Enjoy the jimmy rigged code.
*/}.toString().slice(14,-3)

}
alert(templates.myString)

Note that the iPad/Safari does not support 'functionName.toString()'

If you have a lot of legacy code, you can also use the plain JavaScript variant in TypeScript (for cleanup purposes):

interface externTemplates
{
    myString:string;
}

declare var templates:externTemplates;

alert(templates.myString)

and you can use the multiline-string object from the plain JavaScript variant, where you put the templates into another file (which you can merge in the bundle).

You can try TypeScript at
http://www.typescriptlang.org/Playground

The equivalent in javascript is:

var text = `
This
Is
A
Multiline
String
`;

Here's the specification. See browser support at the bottom of this page. Here are some examples too.

My version of array-based join for string concat:

var c = []; //c stands for content
c.push("<div id='thisDiv' style='left:10px'></div>");
c.push("<div onclick='showDo(\'something\');'></div>");
$(body).append(c.join('\n'));

This has worked well for me, especially as I often insert values into the html constructed this way. But it has lots of limitations. Indentation would be nice. Not having to deal with nested quotation marks would be really nice, and just the bulkyness of it bothers me.

Is the .push() to add to the array taking up a lot of time? See this related answer:

(Is there a reason JavaScript developers don't use Array.push()?)

After looking at these (opposing) test runs, it looks like .push() is fine for string arrays which will not likely grow over 100 items - I will avoid it in favor of indexed adds for larger arrays.

You can use += to concatenate your string, seems like no one answered that, which will be readable, and also neat... something like this

var hello = 'hello' +
            'world' +
            'blah';

can be also written as

var hello = 'hello';
    hello += ' world';
    hello += ' blah';

console.log(hello);

I think this workaround should work in IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera -

Using jQuery :

<xmp id="unique_id" style="display:none;">
  Some plain text
  Both type of quotes :  " ' " And  ' " '
  JS Code : alert("Hello World");
  HTML Code : <div class="some_class"></div>
</xmp>
<script>
   alert($('#unique_id').html());
</script>

Using Pure Javascript :

<xmp id="unique_id" style="display:none;">
  Some plain text
  Both type of quotes :  " ' " And  ' " '
  JS Code : alert("Hello World");
  HTML Code : <div class="some_class"></div>
</xmp>
<script>
   alert(document.getElementById('unique_id').innerHTML);
</script>

Cheers!!

Just tried the Anonymous answer and found there's a little trick here, it doesn't work if there's a space after backslash \
So the following solution doesn't work -

var x = { test:'<?xml version="1.0"?>\ <-- One space here
            <?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?>' 
};

But when space is removed it works -

var x = { test:'<?xml version="1.0"?>\<-- No space here now
          <?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?>' 
};

alert(x.test);​

Hope it helps !!

i found a more elegant solution, maybe a little non-topic related because it uses PHP, but im sure it will be useful and cuteness* for some of yours...

this javascript code should stay inside script tags

var html=<?php echo json_encode("

        <div class=container>
            <div class=area1>
                xxx
            </div>
            <div class=area2>
                ".$someVar."
            </div>
        </div>

"); ?>

in your output html you will see something like

var html="\r\n\r\n\t\t\t<div class=container>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=area1>\r\n\t\t\t\t\txxx\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=area2>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t44\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\t";  

and et voilà!, it gives you code readability in your file.

pD: this sample uses json_encode() PHP function, but certainly there are function equivalents for ASP, Ruby and JSP langs.

pD: however, this solution have his limitations too, one of them is you cannot use javascript variables inside the encapsulated code.

If you happen to be running in Node only, you could use the fs module to read in the multi-line string from a file:

var diagram;
var fs = require('fs');
fs.readFile( __dirname + '/diagram.txt', function (err, data) {
  if (err) {
    throw err; 
  }
  diagram = data.toString();
});

This is one fairly economical approach, at least in terms of the source code:

function s() {
    var args = [],index;
    for (index = 0; index< arguments.length; index++) {
        args.push (arguments [index]);
    }
    return args.join ("\n");
}
console.log (s (
    "This is the first line",
    "and this is the second",
    "finally a third"
));

function s() {return arguments.join ("\n")} 

would be nicer of course if the "arguments" property were a proper array.

A second version might use "" to do the join for cases when you want to control the line breaks in a very long string.

I program this way:

sys = {
    layout: null,
    makeLayout: function (obCLS) {
        this.layout = $('<div />').addClass('editor').appendTo($(obCLS)).append(

            /* Cargador */
            /* @this.layout.find('> div:nth-of-child(1)'); */
            '<div>' +
            '   <p>Seleccione la imagen que desea procesar.</p>' +
            '   <input type="button" value="Seleccionar" class="btn btn-xlarge btn-success" />' +
            '   <span></span>' +
            '</div>' +

            /* Cargador - Progreso */
            /* @this.layout.find('> div:nth-of-child(2)'); */
            '<div>' +
            '   <div>' +
            '       <div></div>' +
            '       <div>' +
            '           <div></div>' +
            '       </div>' +
            '   </div>' +
            '</div>' +

            /* Editor */
            /* @this.layout.find('> div:nth-of-child(3)');
             * @sidebar = this.layout.find('> div:nth-of-child(3) > div > div > div:nth-of-type(1)');
             * @body    = this.layout.find('> div:nth-of-child(3) > div > div > div:nth-of-type(2) > div'); */
            '<div>' +
            '   <div>' +
            '       <div>' +
            '           <div></div>' +
            '           <div>' +
            '               <div></div>' +
            '           </div>' +
            '       </div>' +
            '   </div>' +
            '</div>'
        );
    }
}

sys.makeLayout('#div');

I think I discovered another way to do it inline without any invasive syntax on every line. Use Javascript's ability to convert a function to string and create a multiline comment with the /**/ syntax then remove the "function() {/*\n" and "\n*/}".

var multiline = function(string) { return string.toString().replace(/(^[^\n]*\n)|(\n\*\/\})/g, ""); };

console.log(multiline(function() {/*
Hello world!
I'm a multiline string!

Tada!
*/}));

The only pitfall I can see in this is the syntax highlighting.

EDIT: Had I scrolled down a little more, I would have seen this answer doing exactly the same thing: http://stackoverflow.com/a/5571069/916553