quotation and punctuation in sql server

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quotation and punctuation in sql server

r_slot

Ten Centuries

Points: 1379
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October 28, 2012 at 4:23 pm

#263801

Does anyone have some rules by which quotation in SQL Server works?
An example:
Select Year,
Max(Case When Name='Tour de France'Then Coureur End) As [Tour de France]
Max(Case When Name='Giro d''Italia' Then Coureur End) As [ Giro d'Italia]
etc.
I don't understand the punctuation in 'Giro d''Italia': it is Giro d' and Italia so one would expect Giro d' + Italia or 'Giro d'' + 'Italia', but not 'Giro d''Italia.
Perhaps someone has any ideas about this phenomenon.
Grz,
Robert

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Ron McCullough SSC Guru Points: 63877 More actions · Answer 1

Here is an excellent read on the subject:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa259228(v=sql.80).aspx

Scroll down a little more than half the page to see examples.

Here is a quick example:

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF

DECLARE @Toff VARCHAR(100)

SET @Toff = 'I''ve got a lovely bunch of cocnuts'

SELECT @Toff

Result:

I've got a lovely bunch of cocnuts

edited to take result out of code block

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

Ron

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Joie Andrew One Orange Chip Points: 27360 More actions · Answer 2

This is because quotation marks in SQL are done in pairs. In order to have a single quotation mark show up in your select statement it has to be escaped. The way to do this in T-SQL is by typing two single quotes.

Joie Andrew
"Since 1982"

r_slot Ten Centuries Points: 1379 More actions · Answer 3

Thanks a lot guys: there is a beginning of an understanding. Putting it into practice look at the following:

CREATE TABLE #images (files VARCHAR(500) NULL, InsertCMD

AS 'INSERT INTO Renner_Foto (ImageID, ImageName, ImageData ) '

+ ' SELECT ' + LEFT(files, PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', files) - 1) + ' AS ImageID, '

+ '''' + files + ''' As ImageName, '

+ 'BulkColumn FROM OPENROWSET( Bulk '

+ '''D:\MijnDocumenten\DWCoureurLocaleData\Irfanview_20112011\' + files + ''','

+ ' SINGLE_BLOB) AS BLOB '

)

The rules are:

the contents of InsertCMD needs to be in single quotes;

the SQL-commands need no further treatment (just single quotes);

the left part don't need quotes because it is a literal;

then the part with '''' + files + ''' As ImageName, ' I don't understand: files is literal but needs double quotes?

the same in relation to the last part: why three quotes (double and a single I assume) before D:\MijnDocumenten\etc. then a single quote and at last again a triple and a single.

The only thing that is understandable is the fact that they come in pairs, so the total amount of quotes is always even. It is the placing that give me problems.

Perhaps someone can give it one further try?

Thanks in advance,

Robert

gorthog Ten Centuries Points: 1084 More actions · Answer 4

r_slot,

To address your original question, each single quotation mark within a string must be preceded with the single quote literal marker:

SELECT 'Giro d''Italia'

UNION

SELECT 'This is an empty string: '''''

output:

---------------------------

Giro d'Italia

This is an empty string: ''

-gjr