What good is new line character?

Question

I don't really get it: what's the purpose of a new line character?

If I do this:

<?php
echo "This is a test. \n";
echo "This is another test.";
?> 

Code results in both sentences being in the same line. Why doesn't the \n causes the second sentence being in second line?

The sentences are each in it's own line, if I do:

<?php
echo "This is a test. <br>";
echo "This is another test.";
?>

But I have also seen people do this:

<?php
echo "This is a test. <br>\n";
echo "This is another test.";
?> 

Which essentially results in the same output as the second code snippet. Someone care to explain this?

Answer 1

The HTML standard treats a line break as just another white space character, which is why the <br> tag exists. Note however a line break will work within a <pre> tag, or an element with the white-space:pre CSS style.

The third example is just to make "pretty" HTML: it makes it easier to "view source" and check it by eye. Otherwise, you have a big long string of HTML.