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--- literal_quotes_in_dcl_strings [2018/11/16 23:45] – initial commit lricker
+++ literal_quotes_in_dcl_strings [2018/11/20 18:37] (current) – This article derived from "Symbol Substitution", moved text lricker
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ===== Literal Quotes in DCL Strings =====
-Work-in-progress
+What if you want to produce literal double-quote marks to be printed in a string of text? -- like this:
+<code>
+This is "double-quoted-text".
+</code>
+...or surround some text with single quotes? -- like this:
+<code>
+This is 'singled-quoted-text'.
+</code>
+When you want a //literal __double__-quote mark// to appear in a literal text string, you can produce it in either of these two ways:
+<code>
+$ WRITE sys$output "This is ""double-quoted-text""."
+                   |        ^^                  ^^ |   ! Use two double-quotes where you want one printed,
+                   ^                               ^   ! and these two double-quotes delimit the literal string.
+</code>
+...or:
+<code>
+$ DQUOTE = """"   ! Create a variable whose content/value is a single double-quote mark!
+$ WRITE sys$output "This is " + DQUOTE, "double-quoted-text" + DQUOTE + "."
+$ ! This           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+$ !   concatenates several substrings (including the value of DQUOTE) into
+$ !   a single string for printing.
+</code>
+...or:
+<code>
+$ DQUOTE = """"   ! Create a variable whose content/value is a single double-quote mark!
+$ message = "This is " + DQUOTE, "double-quoted-text" + DQUOTE + "."
+$ ! This    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+$ !   concatenates several substrings (including the value of DQUOTE) into
+$ !   a single string variable for any purpose, including printing...
+$ WRITE sys$output message
+</code>
+...or even:
+<code>
+$ DQUOTE = """"   ! Create a variable whose value is a single double-quote mark!
+$ WRITE sys$output "This is ", DQUOTE, "double-quoted-text", DQUOTE, "."
+$ ! The WRITE      ^^^^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^
+$ !   command takes several expressions (here, just literal strings) and
+$ !   concatenates them itself for printing.
+</code>
+This suggests a similar way to produce a //literal __single__-quote mark (tick)// in text:
+<code>
+$ SQUOTE = "'"   ! Create a variable whose value is a single single-quote mark!
+$ WRITE sys$output "This is ", SQUOTE, "singe-quoted-text", SQUOTE, "."
+</code>
+...or:
+<code>
+$ SQUOTE = "'"   ! Create a variable whose value is a single single-quote mark!
+$ WRITE sys$output "This is " + SQUOTE + "singe-quoted-text" + SQUOTE + "."
+</code>
+...both produce:
+<code>
+This is 'single-quoted-text'.
+</code>