PHP Strings: Working with Text Data in PHP

Escape characters are used to represent characters that are difficult or impossible to type directly in a string, or to insert special characters within a string. These escape characters are typically represented with a backslash (\) followed by a character or a sequence.

Common Escape Characters in PHP

Here’s a list of commonly used escape sequences in PHP:

Escape Sequence	Description	Example
\'	Single quote	'It\'s cool'
\"	Double quote	"She said, \"Hello!\""
\\	Backslash	`"C:\\Program Files"`
\n	Newline	"Line 1\nLine 2"
\r	Carriage return	"Hello\rWorld"
\t	Tab (horizontal tab)	"Name\tAge"
\v	Vertical tab	"First\vSecond"
\b	Backspace (non-printing)	"Word\b"
\f	Form feed	"Text\fEnd"
\xXX	Hexadecimal character (XX is a two-digit hex number)	`"\x41"` (outputs 'A')
\u{XXXX}	Unicode escape (for characters above 255)	`"Hello \u{1F600}"` (outputs "Hello 😀")

Escape Single and Double Quotes

To include quotes inside a string, use escape characters for single or double quotes.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<?php

// Using single quote inside a single-quoted string

$string1 = 'It\'s a sunny day!'; // Outputs: It's a sunny day!

// Using double quote inside a double-quoted string

$string2 = "She said, \"Hello!\""; // Outputs: She said, "Hello!"

echo $string1;

echo $string2;

</body>

</html>

Try it yourself

Escape Backslashes

To include a literal backslash (\), you need to escape it using \\.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<?php

$filePath = "C:\\Program Files\\PHP";

echo $filePath; // Outputs: C:\Program Files\PHP

</body>

</html>

Try it yourself

Newlines and Tabs

You can insert newline characters (\n), carriage return (\r), and tabs (\t) inside strings.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<pre>

<?php

$text = "Hello\nWorld!";

echo $text; // Outputs:

// Hello

// World!

$tabbedText = "Name\tAge\nJohn\t25";

echo $tabbedText; // Outputs:

// Name Age

// John 25

</pre>

</body>

</html>

Try it yourself

Unicode Characters & Hexadecimal character

Unicode characters can be represented with \u{XXXX}, where XXXX is the Unicode code point (e.g., \u{1F600} for the smiling face emoji) and hexadecimal character can be represented with \xXX, where XX is the Hexadecimal code point .

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<?php

$x = "\x48\x65\x6c\x6c\x6f"; // Outputs: Hello

echo $x."<br>";

$emoji = "Hello \u{1F600}"; // Outputs: Hello 😀

echo $emoji;

</body>

</html>

Try it yourself

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