newlineterminated

Newlineterminated is a term used to describe data items, typically lines of text, whose end is signaled by a newline character instead of a null terminator. In this scheme, the length of the item can be determined by locating the newline. The newline may be LF (line feed) or CRLF (carriage return followed by line feed); some contexts use only LF. The content of the line is considered to end immediately before the newline, though some applications include the newline as part of the line when processing.

Newlineterminated lines are common in text files and line-oriented protocols, such as many email and HTTP header blocks, as well as logs and command-line interfaces. In programming languages, line-reading functions produce strings corresponding to lines; whether the trailing newline is included depends on the language or API. For example, Python’s file iteration yields lines ending with a newline, while other interfaces may return lines without the terminator. Cross-platform behavior can vary, requiring attention when moving data between systems that prefer different newline conventions.

Advantages of newline termination include clear, predictable line boundaries and straightforward streaming or incremental parsing. It simplifies splitting input into records and can improve robustness in line-based processing. Challenges include handling different newline conventions (LF vs CRLF), normalizing them when necessary, and dealing with files that end without a trailing newline, which can complicate parsing or tokenization.

See also: newline, line ending, null-terminated, line-oriented protocol.