# Line endings: invisible marks between lines

[Concepts explained](README.md)

A **line ending** tells a text reader that one line ends and the next begins. Pressing Enter in an editor usually inserts a line ending. It is stored in the file even though you normally do not see a printed symbol.

## Three spellings for the same boundary

| Name | Meaning | Stored control characters |
| --- | --- | --- |
| LF | Line feed | One LF |
| CRLF | Carriage return followed by line feed | CR, then LF |
| CR | Carriage return | One CR |

A **control character** controls text layout or processing instead of drawing an ordinary letter. The names come from older machines that moved a printing carriage and paper.

Pliro accepts all three line endings. CRLF counts as one new line. You usually do not have to change this setting when receiving a friend's source file.

## A line in code or a line in a message?

```pliro
# language: en
say "One\nTwo"
```

This instruction occupies one source line. Inside its text, the [escape sequence](escape-sequences.md) `\n` makes the output occupy two lines: `One`, then `Two`.

Line endings and indentation do different jobs. A line ending moves to the next line; spaces at its start show which [block](../syntax/blocks.md) an instruction belongs to. A tab inside a message can be valid even though tabs used for Pliro indentation are rejected.

Try showing three lines with one `say` instruction. Keep the whole quoted source text on one physical line.

[Source encoding rules](../syntax/encoding.md) · [Whitespace](../syntax/indentation.md)