ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Whitespace character

Imagine you are writing a story and you want to separate different sentences or words to make it easier to read. This is similar to what whitespace characters do in computer language.

A whitespace character is a special character that is used to separate different parts of a sentence or a code. For example, when you write a sentence, you use spaces between words to make them easier to read. Similarly, computer code also uses whitespace characters to separate different parts of a statement or a command.

There are different types of whitespace characters such as space, tab, and newline. When you press the spacebar, it produces a space, which is a type of whitespace character. Similarly, when you press the "Tab" key, it also produces a whitespace character called a Tab. A newline character is a special type of whitespace character that is used to signify the end of a line of text or code.

Whitespace characters are very important in computer programming because they affect the way a program runs. If you don't use proper whitespace characters, then your code may not run correctly because the computer won't be able to understand it properly.

In summary, whitespace characters are special characters used to separate different parts of a sentence or a code. They include spaces, tabs, and newline characters, and they are very important in computer programming.