Return Character in a Text File?

I have a slight problem. Is there anyway to make a text file with a return character that doesn't show up in windows notepad as a gibberish character and actually puts a return in it? Right now I'm using the "\n" for the return but it doesn't get read in notepad as a return so the string data is one long line instead of multiple lines. Is there any other way of doing this? Code I am using: $data = ""; //loop $data .= "$firstName, $lastName, $email, $gender, $bday, $phone, $zip,\n"; //end of loop Thanks!