Introduction

Dedented string literals are an experimental implementation of SIP 72. They are enabled with the language import

  import language.experimental.dedentedStringLiterals

The import supports a ''' syntax for dedented multiline string literals that remove leading indentation at a language level, rather than using the .stripMargin library method:

> def helper =
    val x = '''
    i am cow
    hear me moo
    '''
    x

> println(helper)
i am cow
hear me moo

Dedented strings automatically strip:

• The first newline after the opening '''
• The final newline and any whitespace before the closing '''
• Any indentation on every line up to the position of the closing '''

The opening ''' MUST be followed immediately by a newline, and the trailing ''' MUST be preceded by a newline followed by whitespace characters. Lines within the dedented string MUST be either empty, or have indentation equal-to-or-greater-than the closing delimiter.

If a user explicitly wants indentation to be present in the string, they can simply adjust the contents accordingly:

> def helper = {
    // string with two-space indents before each line
    val x = '''
      i am cow
      hear me moo
    '''
    x
  }

> println(helper)
  i am cow
  hear me moo

And if a user wants leading or trailing newlines, they can add those as well:

> def helper = {
    // string with two-space indents before each line, and leading and trailing newlines
    val x = '''

      i am cow
      hear me moo

    '''
    x
  }

> println(helper)

  i am cow
  hear me moo

See SIP 72 for more details.