<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.5, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Continuation Lines (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))</title> <meta name="description" content="Continuation Lines (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="keywords" content="Continuation Lines (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo"> <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" rel="index" title="Concept Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="Statements.html#Statements" rel="up" title="Statements"> <link href="Functions-and-Scripts.html#Functions-and-Scripts" rel="next" title="Functions and Scripts"> <link href="The-try-Statement.html#The-try-Statement" rel="prev" title="The try Statement"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} blockquote.smallindentedblock {margin-right: 0em; font-size: smaller} blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="octave.css"> </head> <body lang="en"> <a name="Continuation-Lines"></a> <div class="header"> <p> Previous: <a href="The-try-Statement.html#The-try-Statement" accesskey="p" rel="prev">The try Statement</a>, Up: <a href="Statements.html#Statements" accesskey="u" rel="up">Statements</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> <hr> <a name="Continuation-Lines-1"></a> <h3 class="section">10.10 Continuation Lines</h3> <a name="index-continuation-lines"></a> <a name="index-_002e_002e_002e-continuation-marker"></a> <p>In the Octave language, most statements end with a newline character and you must tell Octave to ignore the newline character in order to continue a statement from one line to the next. Lines that end with the characters <code>...</code> are joined with the following line before they are divided into tokens by Octave’s parser. For example, the lines </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">x = long_variable_name ... + longer_variable_name ... - 42 </pre></div> <p>form a single statement. </p> <p>Any text between the continuation marker and the newline character is ignored. For example, the statement </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">x = long_variable_name ... # comment one + longer_variable_name ...comment two - 42 # last comment </pre></div> <p>is equivalent to the one shown above. </p> <a name="index-_005c-continuation-marker"></a> <p>Inside double-quoted string constants, the character <code>\</code> has to be used as continuation marker. The <code>\</code> must appear at the end of the line just before the newline character: </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">s = "This text starts in the first line \ and is continued in the second line." </pre></div> <p>Input that occurs inside parentheses can be continued to the next line without having to use a continuation marker. For example, it is possible to write statements like </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">if (fine_dining_destination == on_a_boat || fine_dining_destination == on_a_train) seuss (i, will, not, eat, them, sam, i, am, i, will, not, eat, green, eggs, and, ham); endif </pre></div> <p>without having to add to the clutter with continuation markers. </p> </body> </html>