Double quotes can be escaped like this:
string test = #"He said to me, ""Hello World"". How are you?";
But this involves adding character " to the string. Is there a C# function or other method to escape double quotes so that no changing in string is required?
No.
Either use verbatim string literals as you have, or escape the " using backslash.
string test = "He said to me, \"Hello World\" . How are you?";
The string has not changed in either case - there is a single escaped " in it. This is just a way to tell C# that the character is part of the string and not a string terminator.
You can use backslash either way:
string str = "He said to me, \"Hello World\". How are you?";
It prints:
He said to me, "Hello World". How are you?
which is exactly the same that is printed with:
string str = #"He said to me, ""Hello World"". How are you?";
Here is a DEMO.
" is still part of your string.
You can check Jon Skeet's Strings in C# and .NET article for more information.
In C# you can use the backslash to put special characters to your string.
For example, to put ", you need to write \".
There are a lot of characters that you write using the backslash:
Backslash with other characters
\0 nul character
\a Bell (alert)
\b Backspace
\f Formfeed
\n New line
\r Carriage return
\t Horizontal tab
\v Vertical tab
\' Single quotation mark
\" Double quotation mark
\\ Backslash
Any character substitution by numbers:
\xh to \xhhhh, or \uhhhh - Unicode character in hexadecimal notation (\x has variable digits, \u has 4 digits)
\Uhhhhhhhh - Unicode surrogate pair (8 hex digits, 2 characters)
Another thing worth mentioning from C# 6 is interpolated strings can be used along with #.
Example:
string helloWorld = #"""Hello World""";
string test = $"He said to me, {helloWorld}. How are you?";
Or
string helloWorld = "Hello World";
string test = $#"He said to me, ""{helloWorld}"". How are you?";
Check running code here!
View the reference to interpolation here!
You're misunderstanding escaping.
The extra " characters are part of the string literal; they are interpreted by the compiler as a single ".
The actual value of your string is still He said to me, "Hello World". How are you?, as you'll see if you print it at runtime.
2022 UPDATE: Previously the answer would have been "no". However, C#11 introduces a new feature called "raw string literals." To quote the Microsoft documentation:
Beginning with C# 11, you can use raw string literals to more easily create strings that are multi-line, or use any characters requiring escape sequences. Raw string literals remove the need to ever use escape sequences. You can write the string, including whitespace formatting, how you want it to appear in output."
SOURCE: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/strings/#raw-string-literals
EXAMPLE: So using the original example, you could do this (note that raw string literals always begin with three or more quotation marks):
string testSingleLine = """He said to me, "Hello World". How are you?""";
string testMultiLine = """
He said to me, "Hello World". How are you?
""";
Please explain your problem. You say:
But this involves adding character " to the string.
What problem is that? You can't type string foo = "Foo"bar"";, because that'll invoke a compile error. As for the adding part, in string size terms that is not true:
#"""".Length == 1
"\"".Length == 1
In C# 11.0 preview you can use raw string literals.
Raw string literals are a new format for string literals. Raw string literals can contain arbitrary text, including whitespace, new lines, embedded quotes, and other special characters without requiring escape sequences. A raw string literal starts with at least three double-quote (""") characters. It ends with the same number of double-quote characters. Typically, a raw string literal uses three double quotes on a single line to start the string, and three double quotes on a separate line to end the string.
string test = """He said to me, "Hello World" . How are you?""";
In C#, there are at least four ways to embed a quote within a string:
Escape quote with a backslash
Precede string with # and use double quotes
Use the corresponding ASCII character
Use the hexadecimal Unicode character
Please refer this document for detailed explanation.
Related
In a verbatim string literal (#"foo") in C#, backslashes aren't treated as escapes, so doing \" to get a double quote doesn't work. Is there any way to get a double quote in a verbatim string literal?
This understandably doesn't work:
string foo = #"this \"word\" is escaped";
Use a duplicated double quote.
#"this ""word"" is escaped";
outputs:
this "word" is escaped
Use double quotation marks.
string foo = #"this ""word"" is escaped";
For adding some more information, your example will work without the # symbol (it prevents escaping with \), this way:
string foo = "this \"word\" is escaped!";
It will work both ways but I prefer the double-quote style for it to be easier working, for example, with filenames (with lots of \ in the string).
This should help clear up any questions you may have: C# literals
Here is a table from the linked content:
Regular literal
Verbatim literal
Resulting string
"Hello"
#"Hello"
Hello
"Backslash: \\"
#"Backslash: \"
Backslash: \
"Quote: \""
#"Quote: """
Quote: "
"CRLF:\r\nPost CRLF"
#"CRLF:Post CRLF"
CRLF:Post CRLF
Update: With C# 11 Preview feature - Raw String Literals
string foo1 = """
this "word" is escaped
""";
string foo2 = """this "word" is escaped""";
History:
There is a proposal open in GitHub for the C# language about having better support for raw string literals. One valid answer, is to encourage the C# team to add a new feature to the language (such as triple quote - like Python).
see https://github.com/dotnet/csharplang/discussions/89#discussioncomment-257343
As the documentation says:
Simple escape sequences ... are interpreted literally. Only a quote escape sequence ("") is not interpreted literally; it produces one double quotation mark. Additionally, in case of a verbatim interpolated string brace escape sequences ({{ and }}) are not interpreted literally; they produce single brace characters.
In a verbatim string literal (#"foo") in C#, backslashes aren't treated as escapes, so doing \" to get a double quote doesn't work. Is there any way to get a double quote in a verbatim string literal?
This understandably doesn't work:
string foo = #"this \"word\" is escaped";
Use a duplicated double quote.
#"this ""word"" is escaped";
outputs:
this "word" is escaped
Use double quotation marks.
string foo = #"this ""word"" is escaped";
For adding some more information, your example will work without the # symbol (it prevents escaping with \), this way:
string foo = "this \"word\" is escaped!";
It will work both ways but I prefer the double-quote style for it to be easier working, for example, with filenames (with lots of \ in the string).
This should help clear up any questions you may have: C# literals
Here is a table from the linked content:
Regular literal
Verbatim literal
Resulting string
"Hello"
#"Hello"
Hello
"Backslash: \\"
#"Backslash: \"
Backslash: \
"Quote: \""
#"Quote: """
Quote: "
"CRLF:\r\nPost CRLF"
#"CRLF:Post CRLF"
CRLF:Post CRLF
Update: With C# 11 Preview feature - Raw String Literals
string foo1 = """
this "word" is escaped
""";
string foo2 = """this "word" is escaped""";
History:
There is a proposal open in GitHub for the C# language about having better support for raw string literals. One valid answer, is to encourage the C# team to add a new feature to the language (such as triple quote - like Python).
see https://github.com/dotnet/csharplang/discussions/89#discussioncomment-257343
As the documentation says:
Simple escape sequences ... are interpreted literally. Only a quote escape sequence ("") is not interpreted literally; it produces one double quotation mark. Additionally, in case of a verbatim interpolated string brace escape sequences ({{ and }}) are not interpreted literally; they produce single brace characters.
In a verbatim string literal (#"foo") in C#, backslashes aren't treated as escapes, so doing \" to get a double quote doesn't work. Is there any way to get a double quote in a verbatim string literal?
This understandably doesn't work:
string foo = #"this \"word\" is escaped";
Use a duplicated double quote.
#"this ""word"" is escaped";
outputs:
this "word" is escaped
Use double quotation marks.
string foo = #"this ""word"" is escaped";
For adding some more information, your example will work without the # symbol (it prevents escaping with \), this way:
string foo = "this \"word\" is escaped!";
It will work both ways but I prefer the double-quote style for it to be easier working, for example, with filenames (with lots of \ in the string).
This should help clear up any questions you may have: C# literals
Here is a table from the linked content:
Regular literal
Verbatim literal
Resulting string
"Hello"
#"Hello"
Hello
"Backslash: \\"
#"Backslash: \"
Backslash: \
"Quote: \""
#"Quote: """
Quote: "
"CRLF:\r\nPost CRLF"
#"CRLF:Post CRLF"
CRLF:Post CRLF
Update: With C# 11 Preview feature - Raw String Literals
string foo1 = """
this "word" is escaped
""";
string foo2 = """this "word" is escaped""";
History:
There is a proposal open in GitHub for the C# language about having better support for raw string literals. One valid answer, is to encourage the C# team to add a new feature to the language (such as triple quote - like Python).
see https://github.com/dotnet/csharplang/discussions/89#discussioncomment-257343
As the documentation says:
Simple escape sequences ... are interpreted literally. Only a quote escape sequence ("") is not interpreted literally; it produces one double quotation mark. Additionally, in case of a verbatim interpolated string brace escape sequences ({{ and }}) are not interpreted literally; they produce single brace characters.
In a verbatim string literal (#"foo") in C#, backslashes aren't treated as escapes, so doing \" to get a double quote doesn't work. Is there any way to get a double quote in a verbatim string literal?
This understandably doesn't work:
string foo = #"this \"word\" is escaped";
Use a duplicated double quote.
#"this ""word"" is escaped";
outputs:
this "word" is escaped
Use double quotation marks.
string foo = #"this ""word"" is escaped";
For adding some more information, your example will work without the # symbol (it prevents escaping with \), this way:
string foo = "this \"word\" is escaped!";
It will work both ways but I prefer the double-quote style for it to be easier working, for example, with filenames (with lots of \ in the string).
This should help clear up any questions you may have: C# literals
Here is a table from the linked content:
Regular literal
Verbatim literal
Resulting string
"Hello"
#"Hello"
Hello
"Backslash: \\"
#"Backslash: \"
Backslash: \
"Quote: \""
#"Quote: """
Quote: "
"CRLF:\r\nPost CRLF"
#"CRLF:Post CRLF"
CRLF:Post CRLF
Update: With C# 11 Preview feature - Raw String Literals
string foo1 = """
this "word" is escaped
""";
string foo2 = """this "word" is escaped""";
History:
There is a proposal open in GitHub for the C# language about having better support for raw string literals. One valid answer, is to encourage the C# team to add a new feature to the language (such as triple quote - like Python).
see https://github.com/dotnet/csharplang/discussions/89#discussioncomment-257343
As the documentation says:
Simple escape sequences ... are interpreted literally. Only a quote escape sequence ("") is not interpreted literally; it produces one double quotation mark. Additionally, in case of a verbatim interpolated string brace escape sequences ({{ and }}) are not interpreted literally; they produce single brace characters.
This question already has answers here:
Closed 12 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
when to use # in c# ?
F.e. string sqlSelect = #"SELECT * FROM Sales".
It means interpret the following string as literal. Meaning, the \ in the string will actually be a "\" in the output, rather than having to put "\\" to mean the literal character
Before string it allows different string formating rules. You can't use backslash to specify special symbols and "" (double quotes become quotes). I find this format very useful for regular expressions
Example
Console.WriteLine(#"\n""\/a"); // outputs \n"\/a
Console.WriteLine("\\n\"\"\\/a"); // outputs \n"\/a
You might also seen # symbol before variable. In such case it allows using special C# keywords as variables.
Example:
var #switch = 1;
var #if = "test";
It means there is no need to escape characters in such a string.
So if you want to write the path for c:\Windows, you can write it as
string path = "c:\\Windows"; // Note escaped '\'
OR
string path = #"c:\Windows"; // '\' need not be escaped
There are two types of string literals, regular and verbatim. The # symbol makes it a verbatim string literal.
MSDN: String literals (C#)
In C and C++, string has some special characters called "escape characters". For example \, & and the " itself is an escape character!
In the very normal way, you to print a statement like:
Nancy Said Hello World! & smiled
you had to set your string like next
string str = "Nancy said Hello World! \& smiled.";
But people in Microsoft made a new cool feature in C# compiler so you can escape the headache of handling the escape characters by adding # before any string, and the compiler will handle all the escape characters for you by himself. For the last example you can have this in C# like next:
string str = #"Nancy said Hello World! & smiled.";
Verbatim string literals start with #
and are also enclosed in double
quotation marks. For example:
#"good morning" // a string literal
Nicked from, have a look at the last few lines above the example for more information.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/362314fe.aspx
Used for string literal. It marks the string within the quote (") marks as the value without applying any interpretation for symbols in that string.
It allows you to have a string with a \ delimiter in it. #"C:\A\b\c\d\e\f" is legal.