A character string literal is a string of printable characters.
The maximum length of a character string is 65,536 characters.
The printable characters are:
o Uppercase alphabetic characters (A-Z)
o Lowercase alphabetic characters (a-z)
o Numerals (0-9)
o The following special characters:
! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) - _ = + ` ~
[ ] { } ; : ' " \ | / ? > < . ,
o Any other characters that are part of the Digital
Multinational character set
o Japanese characters: Kanji, as defined by the JIS X0208:1990
standard, and Narrow Katakana, as defined by the JIS
X0201:1976 standard
You must enclose a character string literal in a pair of either
single or double quotation marks. Quotation Marks in Character
String Literals shows the valid use of quotation marks in
character string literals.
Table 5-5 Quotation Marks in Character String Literals
Character String Value
Expression Value
"JONES" JONES
'JONES' JONES
"JONES' [invalid]
"''''" ''''
"''''' [invalid]
'My name is "Lefty".' My name is "Lefty".
'My ''handle'' is "Lefty".' My 'handle' is "Lefty".
CDO usually treats uppercase and lowercase forms of the same
letter as the same character. However, it preserves the case
distinction when doing comparisons of character strings; for
example, NAME = "JONES" and NAME = "Jones" yield different
results.
o Begin and end a character string literal with the same type of
quotation mark.
o To include a quotation mark of one type in a character string
literal, enclose the literal in quotation marks of the other
type. For example, to include double quotation marks in a
character string literal, enclose the character string in
single quotation marks.
o If a quotation mark appears in a character string literal
enclosed by quotation marks of the same type, use two
consecutive quotation marks for every one you want to include
in the literal. This technique is necessary if you want to
include quotation marks of both types in a single quoted
string.
Additional Information:
explode
extract