'C backslash newline in the middle of word emits error

The GNU CPP says about backslash new lines

A continued line is a line which ends with a backslash, ‘\’. The backslash is removed and the following line is joined with the current one. No space is inserted, so you may split a line anywhere, even in the middle of a word. (It is generally more readable to split lines only at white space.)

When I compile the following, breaking the printf word I get an error like:

error: unknown type name 'prin'

// Online C compiler https://www.programiz.com/c-programming/online-compiler/
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    // Write C code here
    prin\
    tf("Hello world");
    
    return 0;
}

Why are the lines not joined together?

gccc-preprocessor


Solution 1:[1]

The lines are joined together. However, as the second line starts with indent, you end up with prin tf. Remove all leading white space on the line with tf, and it will compile.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Nick Zavaritsky

Related Questions