CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javastringescapingdouble-quotes
fscore
fscore

Reputation: 2619

Don't escape double quotes in a string

I have written a command line script and I am testing that using java.

In command line I write like this: script -html="anchor bold" so while testing the same using java code, how exactly should my string be outlined?

-html=anchor bold" it doesn't work as double quotes dont get included so my test fails

-html=\"anchor bold\" this escapes double quotes but I want it.

-html=\\\"anchor bold\\\" this results in -html=\"anchor bold\" but I don't want any slashes.

I am using a String[] array to execute the command. 

new String[] { "--path=" + p,
               "--user=" + user,
               "--html=\"anchor bold\"",
               "--port=8081"
            }

The command line argument is:

path/executeScript --path=path1 --user=testUser --html="anchor bold" --port=8081

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3593

Answers (4)

Lewis Strasburg
Lewis Strasburg

Reputation: 31

Use the escape character in front of anything you want to use as a literal character, then put the double quotes around it as usual.

script -html="\"anchor bold\""

Upvotes: 2

Bubletan
Bubletan

Reputation: 3863

A way I could think of.. Using characters.

"--html=" + '"' + "anchor bold" + '"'

Upvotes: 0

ToYonos
ToYonos

Reputation: 16833

If you want to to test your script with Java, with parameters containing quotes, you don't have any choice, you'll have to escape it.

String[] command  = new String[] {
    "path/executeScript",
    "--path=" + p,
    "--user=" + user,
    "--html=\"anchor bold\"",
    "--port=8081"
}
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);

Technical explanation : https://stackoverflow.com/a/3034195/2003986

Upvotes: 11

Unihedron
Unihedron

Reputation: 11041

To declare a String literal, the only way to do it is with double quotes surrounding characters in the String. Like this:

"String Characters"
... String Characters

From the Java Language Specifications §3.10.5:

A string literal consists of zero or more characters enclosed in double quotes. Characters may be represented by escape sequences (§3.10.6) - one escape sequence for characters in the range U+0000 to U+FFFF, two escape sequences for the UTF-16 surrogate code units of characters in the range U+010000 to U+10FFFF.

StringLiteral:
  " {StringCharacter} "
StringCharacter:
  InputCharacter but not " or \ 
  EscapeSequence
See §3.10.6 for the definition of EscapeSequence.

[...]

The following are examples of string literals:

""                    // the empty string
"\""                  // a string containing " alone
"This is a string"    // a string containing 16 characters
"This is a " +        // actually a string-valued constant expression,
    "two-line string"    // formed from two string literals

Because escaping the double quotes is a compile-time syntax requirement, you must escape the double quotes in a String literal.

You can try for a Unicode literal, but I highly doubt (spoilers: it doesn't) the compiler would accept it:

"--html=\u0022anchor bold\u0022" — Wrong

Use an escape:

"--html=\"anchor bold\"" — Right

Of which is treated by the compiler as:

... --html="anchor bold"

See also:

Upvotes: 4

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