Why doesn't Java have a way of specifying unescaped String literals?

Question

In C#, if you want a String to be taken literally, i.e. ignore escape characters, you can use:

string myString = @"sadasd/asdaljsdl";

However there is no equivalent in Java. Is there any reason Java has not included something similar?

Edit:

After reviewing some answers and thinking about it, what I'm really asking is:
Is there any compelling argument against adding this syntax to Java? Some negative to it, that I'm just not seeing?

Answer 1

Java has always struck me as a minimalist language - I would imagine that since verbatim strings are not a necessity (like properties for instance) they were not included.

For instance in C# there are many quick ways to do thing like properties:

public int Foo { get; set; }

and verbatim strings:

String bar = @"some
string";

Java tends to avoid as much syntax-sugar as possible. If you want getters and setters for a field you must do this:

private int foo;

public int getFoo() { return this.foo; }
public int setFoo(int foo) { this.foo = foo; }

and strings must be escaped:

String bar = "some\nstring";

I think it is because in a lot of ways C# and Java have different design goals. C# is rapidly developed with many features being constantly added but most of which tend to be syntax sugar. Java on the other hand is about simplicity and ease of understanding. A lot of the reasons that Java was created in the first place were reactions against C++'s complexity of syntax.

Answer 2

I find it funny "why" questions. C# is a newer language, and tries to improve in what is seen as shortcomings in other languages such as Java. The simple reason for the "why" question is - the Java standard does not define the @ operator such as in C#.

Answer 3

Like said, mostly when you want to escape characters is for regexes. In that case use: Pattern.quote()