In example two there is no \0 that is being removed by the compiler to do the concatenation. In the C language this is perfectly valid: "Testing something" "

In example two there is no \0 that is being removed by the compiler to do the concatenation. In the C language this is perfectly valid: "Testing something" ": more"; "Testing something" ": more"; This is still only considered one string, whether there are newlines in between or not. The translation unit is from the last semicolon to the next semicolon (overly simplified), so the compiler see this: "Testing something"": more"; Now it sees that there is no operator between the two "strings" and simply makes them a single string.