What does the backslash do in this case?

[Sythical]

Hello, I'm sorry for using a vague title. I've been learning about OpenGL shaders and came across this example:

const GLchar *vertex_shader_code =
{
	"#version 150\n"\

	"in vec2 position;\n"\

	"void main()\n"\
	"{\n"\
	"	gl_Position = vec4(position, 0.0, 1.0);\n"\
	"}\n"
};

What do the backslashes after each string do? My guess is that they allow us to break down a long string so that it can be written over multiple lines.

Thank you!

[LB]

The backslashes after each string literal serve no purpose, the code would have the same meaning without them. I have no idea why they are there.

[Sythical]

Thanks! I tried to replace the slashes with commas but that gave a error which confused me.

char *identifier = { "a" "b" "c" };

cout << *identifier;
cout << *(identifier + 1);
cout << identifier[2];

I believe { "a" "b" "c" } returns the pointer to an array and that pointer is stored in identifier. Why does char *identifier = { "a", "b", "c" } or even int *int_array = { 1, 2, 3 } not work then when int int_array[] = { 1, 2, 3 } is fine?

[3hM2Nwbp]

'\' acts as a line continuation token.

int main()
{
    // this is a \
    comment
}

is a valid C++ program_{, obviously written by someone that loves home brewed source code obfuscation}.

The code you've posted is equivalent to:

const GLchar *vertex_shader_code =
{
	"#version 150\n"
	"in vec2 position;\n"
	"void main()\n"	"{\n"	"	gl_Position = vec4(position, 0.0, 1.0);\n"	"}\n"
};

after the continuations are parsed.

[giblit]

Same way this compiles:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

#\ i\ n\ c\ l\ u\ d\ e\ <\ i\ o\ s\ t\ r\ e\ a\ m\ > i\ n\ t \ m\ a\ i\ n\ ( ) { s\ t\ d\ :\ : c\ o\ u\ t <\ < "Hello, world!" <\ < s\ t\ d\ :\ : e\ n\ d\ l\ ; }

Hello, world!

http://ideone.com/aL2RZB

[LB]

I think the missing piece is not what the backslash is for, but rather how in C and C++ string literals can be concatenated. The two lines below are identical from the compiler's perspective:

char const *a = "He" "ll" "o " "wo" "rl" "d!";
char const *b = "Hello world!";

[Sythical]

That cleared everything up, thank you all for your help :)