===== Literal Quotes in DCL Strings =====
What if you want to produce literal double-quote marks to be printed in a string of text? -- like this:
This is "double-quoted-text".
...or surround some text with single quotes? -- like this:
This is 'singled-quoted-text'.
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:
$ 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.
...or:
$ 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.
...or:
$ 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
...or even:
$ 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.
This suggests a similar way to produce a //literal __single__-quote mark (tick)// in text:
$ SQUOTE = "'" ! Create a variable whose value is a single single-quote mark!
$ WRITE sys$output "This is ", SQUOTE, "singe-quoted-text", SQUOTE, "."
...or:
$ SQUOTE = "'" ! Create a variable whose value is a single single-quote mark!
$ WRITE sys$output "This is " + SQUOTE + "singe-quoted-text" + SQUOTE + "."
...both produce:
This is 'single-quoted-text'.