How to insert a quote \" character in string

[nmnogueira]

Hi,

I need to include a quote " character in a string, in order to open a file which file name may or not have spaces. I already tried:

Code: Select all

    cmd = "start /b "+fileName;
    system(cmd);
    // result string: "start /b filename"
    // does not work when file name has spaces

    cmd = "start /b \\""+fileName+"\\"";
    system(cmd);
    // result string: "start /b \\"filename\\""
    // does not work

    cmd = "start /b """+fileName+"""";
    system(cmd);
    // result string: "start /b filename"
    // does not work

    char quote = 34;
    cmd = "start /b "+quote+fileName+quote;
    system(cmd);
    // result string: "start /b \\"filename\\""
    // does not work

Any suggestions?

[mkoller]

Why does your second solution not work ? What happens ?
For me this seems to be the correct approach.
Note also that system() internally prepends "cmd /c"

[kilianvp]

try

Code: Select all

strreplace(fileName, "/", "\\\\");

and for example:

Code: Select all

system("start explorer.exe \\"" + fileName+"\\"");

should work

[mkoller]

Hint: instead the strreplace() one can use the CTRL function: makeNativePath() ... nicer and works in a platform neutral way

[nmnogueira]

Martin Koller wrote:

Why does your second solution not work ? What happens ?
For me this seems to be the correct approach.
Note also that system() internally prepends "cmd /c"

It does not work because the result string is "start /b \\"filename\\"", with the backslash before the quotes.

Kilian von Pflugk wrote:

try
Code:
strreplace(fileName, "/", "\\\\");


and for example:

Code:
system("start explorer.exe \\"" + fileName+"\\"");


should work

This does not work as well. The problem are the spaces, not the slashes in the path

[dbindernagel]

Your second solution should not have the backslashes in the result.
Are you maybe testing the result with a Debug command and the log viewer?
In the log viewer there will be slashes added but these are not really in the string. It's just for the output (got me confused some time ago, too).

So with Debug and Log Viewer it will show like:

Code: Select all

WCCOAui1:2018.01.18 10:38:07.765["start /b \\"Test 123\\""]

But the content of the string will be:

Code: Select all

start /b "Test 123"

[nmnogueira]

Dennis Bindernagel wrote:

Your second solution should not have the backslashes in the result.
Are you maybe testing the result with a Debug command and the log viewer?
In the log viewer there will be slashes added but these are not really in the string. It's just for the output (got me confused some time ago, too).

So with Debug and Log Viewer it will show like:

Code: Select all

WCCOAui1:2018.01.18 10:38:07.765["start /b \\"Test 123\\""]

But the content of the string will be:

Code: Select all

start /b "Test 123"

You are right, I just noticed that as well. I converted to a blob, and only the quote character appears in the string.

I just managed to solve my problem. The problem was with the start function, which expects the following syntax:
START "title" [/D path] [options] "command" [parameters]

If I change my original code to:

Code: Select all

cmd = "start /b \\"\\" \\""+fileName+"\\"";
system(cmd);

it opens the file correctly. It was missing the first parameter (title). Strangely when I didn't use the quotes it worked correctly, as long as there were no spaces in the path.

Thank you all!