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Escape Character

Webopedia Staff
Last Updated May 24, 2021 7:42 am
A special character that can have many different functions. It is often used to abort the current command and return to a previous place in the program. It is also used to send special instructions to printers and other devices. An escape character is generated with the Escape key, a special key that exists on most computer keyboards.

When the escape character is combined with other characters, it is called an escape sequence.