title: What is the backslash character (\\)?
body: <p>What is the string literal <code>\\</code> <em>backslash</em>? What does it do? I have thought about it but I do not understand it. I also read it on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_literal#Escape_sequences" rel="noreferrer">wikipedia</a>. When I try to print the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>System.out.println("Mango \\ Nightangle");
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the output is: <code>Mango \ Nightangle</code></p>
  
  <p>What is the significance of this string literal?</p>