The error "there is no line to end here" when using \\~\\ or \newline

Question

When I want to have a space between lines I use \\~\\ or \newline

For example

    Hello this is an example

    \\~\\

   Goodbye

I get the error there is no line to end here.

What am I doing wrong?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 25 '16 at 09:39

5

If you really want to skip a line, use

First line

\medskip

last line

A larger space is obtained with \bigskip

answered Jul 25 '16 at 09:39

egreg

I thought \medskip was defined by the document class, is it always guaranteed (assuming the user hasn't redefined it) to be the equivalent of skipping a line? – Au101 Jul 25 '16 at 21:25
1

@Au101 Not strictly “skipping a line”, but it leaves a visible amount of white space. It's not necessary (and I'd not recommend it) to have a full “blank line”. – egreg Jul 25 '16 at 21:32

Elad Den · Answer 2 · 2016-07-25T09:40:19.413

1

You should not skip lines in this manner, you're better off using \vspace.

however, to answer your question, what you have there actually is

First line

\newline
~
\newline

last line

The first newline does not have a line to end. so it should simply be

First line

~\\

last line

edited Jul 25 '16 at 09:40

answered Jul 25 '16 at 09:23

Elad Den

I think the mention of \vspace should come right at the start. The line skipping is not recomendable at all. – Johannes_B Jul 25 '16 at 09:24
I agree, edited accordingly – Elad Den Jul 25 '16 at 09:31
@eladden \vspace doesnt really do anything to my code. – Al jabra Jul 25 '16 at 09:32
@Aljabra the way to use it is \vspace{sizeofskip} check out this link https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Line_breaks_and_blank_spaces you can also use \medskip – Elad Den Jul 25 '16 at 09:35
1

This answer is wrong – egreg Jul 25 '16 at 09:35
2

while that avoids the error message the markup ~\\ is still completely wrong and would for example produce something that looks like vertical space but is in fact a paragraph with no text that is not dropped at a page break, and as always if you end a paragraph with \\ you will get underfull; box 10000 warnings. – David Carlisle Jul 25 '16 at 09:43
1

And the recommendations in the sharelatex page are wrong as well – egreg Jul 25 '16 at 09:43

2 Answers2