What is the difference between \r\n, \r, and \n? [duplicate]

• \r = CR (Carriage Return) → Used as a new line character in Mac OS before X
• \n = LF (Line Feed) → Used as a new line character in Unix/Mac OS X
• \r\n = CR + LF → Used as a new line character in Windows

All 3 of them represent the end of a line. But...

• \r (Carriage Return) → moves the cursor to the beginning of the line without advancing to the next line
• \n (Line Feed) → moves the cursor down to the next line without returning to the beginning of the line — In a *nix environment \n moves to the beginning of the line.
• \r\n (End Of Line) → a combination of \r and \n

They are normal symbols as 'a' or 'ю' or any other. Just (invisible) entries in a string. \r moves cursor to the beginning of the line. \n goes one line down.

As for your replacement, you haven't specified what language you're using, so here's the sketch:

someString.replace("\r\n", "\n").replace("\r", "\n")

A carriage return (\r) makes the cursor jump to the first column (begin of the line) while the newline (\n) jumps to the next line and might also to the beginning of that line. So to be sure to be at the first position within the next line one uses both.