All the format strings shown so far have ended in \n. This kind of construct is called an escape sequence. All escape sequences are made from a backslash character (\) followed by one to three other characters.

Escape sequences are used inside strings, not just those for printf, to represent special characters. In particular, the \n escape sequence represents the newline character. A \n in a printf format string tells awk to start printing output at the beginning of a newline.

The following list shows escape sequences that can be used in awk strings: