How to print "\\0" in C language

Question

I wanted to print \0 using printf. First I found printf("ab\0c") is not right because I can only get "ab". Then I found a way to print "ab\0c" using printf("ab\\0c"). But that brings a new problem. What if I want to print "ab\\0c"? I want to print it in only one sentence. Do you have any good way to do this?

Answer 1

Printing a single backslash (as opposed to using it as an escape sequence) needs a double backslash to undo the escaping., so basically

• If you want to print ab\0c you need printf("ab\\0c") (2 times 1 is 2)
• If you want to print ab\\0c you need printf("ab\\\\0c") (2 times 2 is 4)
• ...

Answer 2

\ "escapes" special characters (allows you to write \n and \" etc). If you want to print a \ you need to escape that (since \ is a special character itself). Put \\ in your string to print \.

If you want to print \\ your format string has to be \\\\ (i.e. escape both \s).

Answer 3

One \\ prints one \, to print \\, use:

printf("ab\\\\0c");

Answer 4

You should try this program:

printf("ab\\\\0c");

Answer 5

Use a double '\' to escape:

printf("ab\\\0c");