Adding quotes to a string in VBScript
VbscriptEscapingString ConcatenationVbscript Problem Overview
I have this code:
a = "xyz"
g = "abcd " & a
After running it, the value of g is abcd xyz.
However, I want quotes around the value of a in g. After running the code, g should be abcd "xyz" instead.
How can I accomplish this?
Vbscript Solutions
Solution 1 - Vbscript
You can escape by doubling the quotes
g="abcd """ & a & """"
or write an explicit chr() call
g="abcd " & chr(34) & a & chr(34)
Solution 2 - Vbscript
You have to use double double quotes to escape the double quotes (lol):
g = "abcd """ & a & """"
Solution 3 - Vbscript
I usually do this:
Const Q = """"
Dim a, g
a = "xyz"
g = "abcd " & Q & a & Q
If you need to wrap strings in quotes more often in your code and find the above approach noisy or unreadable, you can also wrap it in a function:
a = "xyz"
g = "abcd " & Q(a)
Function Q(s)
Q = """" & s & """"
End Function
Solution 4 - Vbscript
The traditional way to specify quotes is to use Chr(34). This is error resistant and is not an abomination.
Chr(34) & "string" & Chr(34)
Solution 5 - Vbscript
You can do like:
a="""xyz"""
g="abcd " & a
Or:
a=chr(34) & "xyz" & chr(34)
g="abcd " & a
Solution 6 - Vbscript
I don't think I can improve on these answers as I've used them all, but my preference is declaring a constant and using that as it can be a real pain if you have a long string and try to accommodate with the correct number of quotes and make a mistake. ;)
Solution 7 - Vbscript
I designed a simple approach using single quotes when forming the strings and then calling a function that replaces single quotes with double quotes.
Of course this approach works as long as you don't need to include actual single quotes inside your string.
Function Q(s)
Q = Replace(s,"'","""")
End Function
...
user="myself"
code ="70234"
level ="C"
r="{'User':'" & user & "','Code':'" & code & "','Level':'" & level & "'}"
r = Q(r)
response.write r
...
Hope this helps.
Solution 8 - Vbscript
I found the answer to use double and triple quotation marks unsatisfactory. I used a nested DO...LOOP to write an ASP segment of code. There are repeated quotation marks within the string. When I ran the code:
thestring = "<asp:RectangleHotSpot Bottom=""" & bottom & """ HotSpotMode=""PostBack"" Left="""& left & """ PostBackValue=""" &xx & "." & yy & """ Right=""" & right & """ Top=""" & top & """/>"
the output was: <`asp:RectangleHotSpot Bottom="28
'Changing the code to the explicit chr() call worked:
thestring = "<asp:RectangleHotSpot Bottom=""" & bottom & chr(34) & " HotSpotMode=""PostBack"" Left="""& left & chr(34) & " PostBackValue=""" &xx & "." & yy & chr(34) & " Right=""" & right & chr(34) & " Top=""" & top & chr(34) &"/>"
The output:
<asp:RectangleHotSpot Bottom="28" HotSpotMode="PostBack" Left="0" PostBackValue="0.0" Right="29" Top="0"/>