println method - what do the last 2 letters (l & n) stand for?

Question

I guess it's related to println()'s newline functionality ('\n'), but in abbreviated letter-based form, that would be nl rather than ln. Thank you for any comments.

println - print line. Meaning it will use **\n** at the end of the printed line. — Tafari, Nov 25 '13 at 09:47
Its not asking to print new line but it prints the given line with \n at the end. — Govan, Nov 25 '13 at 09:48
println - Print a line(a complete line, which is terminated with a new line character(default line separator) or the line separator property). — Rahul, Nov 25 '13 at 09:49
If you got your answer, go ahead and accept it. Please do not add it to your question. It defeats the whole purpose of a Q&A if you're going to include the answer in your question itself. Or else, if you've something new to share with us(which hasn't been posted already), you can post a new answer to your own question also. — Rahul, Nov 25 '13 at 10:03

Alnitak · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-25T10:14:23.863

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It's historic.

Pascal had write and writeln.

write would output a string, leaving the cursor at the end of that string.

writeln (where ln was short for "line") would write a whole line of text and move the cursor to the start of the next line, typically by automatically appending a CRLF or some other OS-dependent control sequence.

Java inherited the abbreviation, but used print instead of write.

edited Nov 25 '13 at 10:14

answered Nov 25 '13 at 09:58

Alnitak

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I'll consider this in my future language. I'll call it `maroun` and `marounln`. – Maroun Nov 25 '13 at 09:59
just an example of bad naming IMHO – Hesham Massoud Oct 06 '19 at 17:56
Really? When I learned Java, I first thought, that it is PrintIn() (with the upper case i) :-) – User123 Mar 28 '20 at 13:34

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 25 '13 at 09:49

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Hi check if this is helpful..

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/io/PrintStream.html

You can find it under the heading Class PrintStream

ln simply means LINE - it prints the character/string in a NEW LINE.

answered Nov 25 '13 at 09:49

MusicLovingIndianGirl

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This doesn't answer the question. – Denys Séguret Nov 25 '13 at 09:50
Why not? He just wanted to know what ln stands for and a link to verify that – MusicLovingIndianGirl Nov 25 '13 at 09:52
@Aishvarya agree, however I wouldn't post an **answer** but rather a **comment** to answer this question. – Tafari Nov 25 '13 at 09:54
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*Hi check if this is helpful.* - This really shouldn't be the first line of an answer, IMHO. It looks like a suggestion at the most. – Rahul Nov 25 '13 at 10:01
What he is saying is convincing, ln stands for Line not New Line, and that why its ln not nl – kdureidy Nov 25 '13 at 10:04
@R.J agree with you on that, it's confusing. – Tafari Nov 25 '13 at 10:05
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actually it _doesn't_ print it _in_ a new line. It ensures that the _next_ output will appear on a new line. – Alnitak Nov 25 '13 at 10:10
@Tafari Fair enough. Link only answers already on board now. And the last line might be some light yet OP him self proposed that :) – Suresh Atta Nov 25 '13 at 10:13

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 25 '13 at 09:48

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println stands for printline.

There is nothing special about it :P It will print a new line instead of printing it on the same line.

answered Nov 25 '13 at 09:48

user1021726

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A source would be welcome. OP asks what it stands for, and it's possible to find other hypothesis, like the fact "ln" looks like "\n". – Denys Séguret Nov 25 '13 at 09:48
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Referring to your edit - *It will print a new line instead of printing it on the same line*. Wrong. it'll print the line and end it with a new line character. – Rahul Nov 25 '13 at 09:50
@R.J According to http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/io/PrintStream.html#println(java.lang.String), it will print the string and then invoke println() meaning it will print a new empty line. – user1021726 Nov 25 '13 at 09:51
The order is important here. If nothing is specified, it prints nothing(blank) and terminates it with the new line character. – Rahul Nov 25 '13 at 09:52
@dystroy IMO OP is just overthinking it. Confusing \n with nl or ln. In regards to his question of what "ln" stands for: it stands for line. – user1021726 Nov 25 '13 at 09:56
@dystroy the source is history - other languages used `fooln` to mean do `foo` followed by a _move to next line_ operation. – Alnitak Nov 25 '13 at 10:13
@Alnitak I know that. What I'm curious about is if historically "ln" stands for "\n" (like `print + \n`) or for an abbreviation of line. But that interesting part of the question is probably off-topic for SO. – Denys Séguret Nov 25 '13 at 10:18
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@dystroy no, it doesn't (and AFAIK cannot) stand for `\n` because that's a "C"ism, and Pascal had `writeln` before C existed. – Alnitak Nov 25 '13 at 10:21
@Alnitak That's a damn good point there. I had totally forgotten the pascal literals (`#13#10` wasn't it ?). – Denys Séguret Nov 25 '13 at 10:23

Bosko Mijin · Answer 4 · 2013-11-25T10:13:18.193

println() method Terminates the current line by writing the line separator string. The line separator string is defined by the system property line.separator, and is not necessarily a single newline character ('\n').

 public void println() {
     newLine();
 }

Also, there are overloaded methods println(String s), println(Char c), println(Double d), println(Float f), println(Long l), println(int i), println(bool b).

Here is a link which gives all code.
http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/root/jdk/openjdk/6-b14/java/io/PrintStream.java#PrintStream.println%28%29.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 25 '13 at 10:19

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println -> print line.

That means that it will print the line you gave it through the parameter, and goes with the cursor to the next line, waiting for another input.

answered Nov 25 '13 at 10:19

Hitman

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println method - what do the last 2 letters (l & n) stand for?

5 Answers5