PARSEC Technical Information

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===== 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:

<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>