Escape characters in R are special characters that are preceded by a backslash \ to indicate that they have a special meaning. They are used to represent characters that cannot be easily typed or printed directly, such as newline, tab, or backslash itself. Here's a simple explanation with examples:
\n: Inserts a new line in the string.Example
# Define a string with newline escape character
my_string <- "Hello\nWorld!"
print(my_string)
Hello
World!
\t: Inserts a tab space in the string.Example
# Define a string with tab escape character
my_string <- "Name:\tJohn"
print(my_string)
Name: John
\\: Inserts a literal backslash in the string.Example
# Define a string with backslash escape character
my_string <- "This is a backslash: \\"
print(my_string)
This is a backslash: \
Escape characters are useful when you need to include special characters in strings, and they help in formatting text for display or processing.