Quotes within quotes applescript

I am doing an applescript that is supposed to set an command with quotes an variable. This is the code so far:

set myString to "This is a "quoted" text."

But an error occurs because applescript doesn't allow quotes within quotes. I have tried to take backslash before each quotes but then the output is:

"This is a \"quoted\" text."

DevRandom

Posted 2012-12-17T15:42:57.927

Reputation: 155

Answers

\"my quoted text\" is the proper way to wrap text in double quotes. Run the script below and open example.txt to see the result.

set xxx to "This is a \"quoted\" text."
do shell script "echo " & quoted form of xxx & " > ~/Desktop/example.txt"

adayzdone

Posted 2012-12-17T15:42:57.927

Reputation: 592

Directly from Apple, it says you can use the escape:

Option 1:

Special String Characters

The backslash (\) and double-quote (") characters have special meaning
in text. AppleScript encloses text in double-quote characters and uses
the backslash character to represent return (\r), tab (\t), and
linefeed (\n) characters (described below). So if you want to include
an actual backslash or double-quote character in a text object, you
must use the equivalent two-character sequence. As a convenience,
AppleScript also provides the text constant quote, which has the value
\".

Table 6-1  Special characters in text Character To insert in text
Backslash character (\) \\ Double quote (") \" quote (text constant)

Option 2

On that same page, Apple says you can use quote to insert \" instead:

set myString to "this is a " & quote & "quoted" & quote & " text."

Option 3

Another option found is:

set inString to "quoted"
set myString to "this is a " & quoted form of inString & " text."

Edit: Though, you said that last one outputs this is 'quoted' text.

nerdwaller

Posted 2012-12-17T15:42:57.927

Reputation: 13 366

1The output of that is "this is a 'quoted' text.". It didn't work... – DevRandom – 2012-12-17T16:05:40.820

Option 1 and 2 gives "this is a "quoted" text." and Option 3 gives not real quotes, "this is a 'quoted' text." – DevRandom – 2012-12-17T16:33:56.347

@ThePhone Understood, just quoting directly from the Apple Developer Docs. Hopefully someone can enlighten us on why that's not working. – nerdwaller – 2012-12-17T17:23:01.640

1quoted form of is meant for escaping strings for do shell script. – Lri – 2012-12-18T05:22:18.183

There is a bug in applescript, if you run the command return TestVarible the output is with backslashes. But, the final command is correct:

display dialog TestVariable Output "This is a "quoted" text."

Thanks for all answers!

DevRandom

Posted 2012-12-17T15:42:57.927

Reputation: 155

I respectfully disagree. Any string "result" in a developer tool should be shown as a literal, so that you know exactly what the output is. It would save a lot of headaches like this during debugging, when you have complex strings with lots of slashes and escapes, etc. For example, JavaScript's console.log( "\"abc\"") logs "abc", not \"abc\" or abc. – Beejor – 2019-05-07T18:09:46.090

1It's not a bug. AppleScript Editor just displays result strings with the AppleScript syntax. – Lri – 2012-12-18T09:21:06.317

other way for quoted text in applescript :

set input to "with quote"

set input to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of (quote & input & quote)

echo '\"with quote\"'

or more long

set input to do shell script "echo " & input & " | sed 's#" & input & "#" & "\"" & input & "\"" & " #'"

deek5

Posted 2012-12-17T15:42:57.927

Reputation: 1

Without proper formatting it's hard to tell which lines are commands and which are comments. Could you please edit your answer? (Hint: start commands with four spaces to get them formatted as such) – Dmitry Grigoryev – 2015-06-25T14:27:43.623