Escape character

Masking characters or escape symbol, english escape character is a special character in a file that prevents the subsequent character is recognized by the executing program as a function of character. Masking characters are for example used in HTML files, CSV files, EDIFACT and registry files.

Operation

If a program reads a file that certain actions of the program can be controlled depending on function signs. If a function symbol occurs in the file, but that is not preceded by a sign function, ie as a command to be interpreted, but as a date, then it is a wildcard character. The escape character itself is a function of character. Thus, it is not shown, but only controls the meaning of the following character. To still be able enter the wildcard character as character data, it is common that there is also a further subsequent masking character takes over the function. So if such signs occur in the text two successively, the data block is expanded to include a wildcard character.

The program and the function sign, and the wildcard characters are matched: Only if program and file match, the functions are executed. On the other hand, there is pseudo standards. For example, the backslash (\) is a common escape character, so that one can formulate the following examples: