latex table: include '\n' in a table cell?

Question

\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l | l | c | c }
Name     & Hex      & dezimal     & C-char \\
<cr>     & 0x0D     & 13          & '\\r' \\     % should read '\r'
<lf>     & 0x0A     & 10          & '\\n' \\
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

Escaping the '\' preceding 'n' or 'r' to e.g. '\\n' inserts a new line - as the '\\' at the end of the line does. Using '\n' or '\r' produces weird characters. How can this be coded properly?

Answer 1

I will be happy to remove this. As mentioned above, to get a backslash, you can use \textbackslash. So you may want

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l | l | c | c }
Name     & Hex      & dezimal     & C-char \\
\texttt{<cr>}     & \texttt{0x0D}     & \texttt{13}          &
\texttt{\textbackslash r} \\   
\texttt{<lf>}     & \texttt{0x0A}     & \texttt{10}          &
\texttt{\textbackslash n} \\
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

or

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{>{\ttfamily}l >{\ttfamily}l >{\ttfamily}c >{\ttfamily}c }
\toprule
\multicolumn{1}{l}{Name}     & \multicolumn{1}{l}{Hex}      & 
\multicolumn{1}{c}{dezimal}     & \multicolumn{1}{c}{C-char} \\
\midrule
<cr>     & 0x0D     & 13          &
\textbackslash r \\   
<lf>     & 0x0A     & 10          &
\textbackslash n \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 2

You can use \textbackaslash as already suggested, but I'd use typewriter type in some columns and angle brackets rather than less or greater than signs.

Also, special commands are better to avoid littering the code with ad hoc hacks.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{array}

\newcommand{\lowascii}[1]{$\langle$#1\/$\rangle$}
\newcommand{\esc}[1]{\textbackslash\symbol{`#1}}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{l >{\ttfamily}c c >{\ttfamily}c}
\toprule
Name & 
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Hex} &
dezimal &
\multicolumn{1}{c}{C-char} \\
\midrule
\lowascii{cr}  & 0x0D & 13 & '\esc{r}'  \\
\lowascii{lf}  & 0x0A & 10 & '\esc{n}'  \\
\textbackslash & 0x5C & 92 & '\esc{\\}' \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

I assume that escape sequences consist of single characters. If you, for example, want to escape % you type \esc{\%}.

Answer 3

Although Scrödinger's cat's answer is more robust because does not use any verbatim command (which can create problems if you use the tabular in a moving argument), another option is

1. switch the whole table to \ttfamily (in a group)
2. use \rmfamily for the headers
3. use \verb where needed.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
    \centering
    {\ttfamily
        \begin{tabular}{l | l | c | c }
            \rmfamily Name      & \rmfamily Hex & \rmfamily dezimal  &\rmfamily  C-char \\
            <cr>     & 0x0D     & 13           & \verb|\r| \\     % should read '\r'
            <lf>     & 0x0A     & 10           & \verb|\n| \\
        \end{tabular}%
    }
    \caption{Caption}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 4

One more method using the current font type with \detokenize. With pdflatex will need the T1 encoding (do not work with OT1). The MWE also load babel to use single guillemots.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{ccccc}\toprule
Name & Hex & dezimal & C-char \\\midrule
\guilsinglleft cr\guilsinglright & 0\texttimes0D & 13 & \detokenize{\r} \\ 
\guilsinglleft lf\guilsinglright & 0\texttimes0A & 10 & \detokenize{\n} \\\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Answer 5

\begin{table}
    \begin{tabular}{l | l | c | c }
        Name     & Hex      & dezimal     & C-char \\
        <cr>     & 0x0D     & 13          & \textbackslash r \\     % should read '\r'
        <lf>     & 0x0A     & 10          & \textbackslash n \\
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}