escaping characters

Question

How can I escape the Quotes so that this statement

string sScript =@"<script language='javascript'>function ShowDropDown(){var combo = $find("""+this.ClientID+""");combo.showDropDown(true);}</script>";

reads like this

function ShowDropDown() {
                var combo = $find("ctl00_ctl00_MainContent_MainContent_VendorTypeIdComboBox");
                combo.showDropDown(true);
            }

EDIT- UPDATE I might of asked the question wrong because i keep getting different errors. If I put the javascript directly on the page normally the function works. When I inject the javascript this way it doesnt work

I am doing this in code behind

string sScript =@"<script language='javascript'> function ShowDropDown(){  var combo = $find("""+this.ClientID+@"""); combo.showDropDown(true); } </script>";
        ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this.Page, this.Page.GetType(), "autoopendropdown", sScript, false);

        OnClientFocus = "ShowDropDown()";

it gets generated this way

<script language='javascript'> function ShowDropDown(){  var combo = $find("ctl00_ctl00_MainContent_MainContent_VendorTypeIdComboBox"); combo.showDropDown(true); } </script>

but the variable combo is null and thats what the problem is. I cant figure out why when it is registered with code-behind it doesnt work and when write it normally on the page it does.

Life may be easier if you just use single quotes in JavaScript... Also you need to make sure there is no chance to get quotes in variables you are concatenating - you may need to add something like "escape all quotes in an argument" method... — Alexei Levenkov, Mar 22 '13 at 00:04
Everyone is getting hung up on the C# quoting. It's valid. He's outputting javascript from C#. — rein, Mar 22 '13 at 00:07
yes, the question is "reads like this" which is ignored in most answers here. @rein, your answer provides one way to do this. — Mark Schultheiss, Mar 22 '13 at 00:24
The line breaks are a matter of format in the question so it was not all on one line. The question literally states "How can I escape the Quotes" and will fail at `+"""` with the error "; expected". — Travis J, Mar 22 '13 at 00:29
@TravisJ - I'm not sure where you're seeing that the error "; expected" is raised. From the updated question text this does not seem to be the case. — rein, Mar 22 '13 at 00:34
@rein - That was from the original question. The updated question will execute without error. — Travis J, Mar 22 '13 at 00:36
I am getting am error chrome and IE. when inspect the page in Chrome combo is undefined. When I build and run from VS2012 and target IE it crashes saying the same thing before the page even finishes building. — ChampChris, Mar 22 '13 at 00:52
possible duplicate of [In C#, can I escape a double quote in a literal string?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1928909/in-c-can-i-escape-a-double-quote-in-a-literal-string) — hjpotter92, Mar 22 '13 at 02:19
@ChampionChris - just to be clear you DO have a function in your script elsewhere literally named "$find"? and if you replace "language='javascript'" with "type='text/javascript'" it does not change the result? – — Mark Schultheiss, Mar 22 '13 at 12:36

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 22 '13 at 00:02

Simple way: Add the same @ at the beginning of the second string literal:

string sScript =@"<script language='javascript'>function ShowDropDown(){var combo = $find("""+this.ClientID+@""");combo.showDropDown(true);}</script>";

Better way: use string.Format

string sScript = string.Format(
@"<script language='javascript'>
    function ShowDropDown(){
        var combo = $find(""{0}"");combo.showDropDown(true);
    }
</script>",
    this.ClientID);

(Best way: separate concerns using unobtrusive javascript.)

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 22 '13 at 00:04

1

string sScript = "<script language='javascript'>\n" +
                 "function ShowDropDown() {\n" +
                 "    var combo = $find(""" + this.ClientID + """);\n" +
                 "    combo.showDropDown(true);\n" +
                 "}\n" +
                 "</script>";

answered Mar 22 '13 at 00:04

rein

32,967
23
82
106

yuck was my first thought here – Mark Schultheiss Mar 22 '13 at 00:07
It's not pretty but without a templating language you don't have much choice. – rein Mar 22 '13 at 00:08
Yes, it works, but also see my answer using a string literal. Gets the same result of the "format/looks like" requirement which is missing in lots of answers. We shall let the OP determine which is best methinks. :) – Mark Schultheiss Mar 22 '13 at 00:20
@Mark: I'm torn between the two approaches (yours and mine). Mine's ugly and yours has the unfortunate side effect that it messes up the program indentation in the C# file, so it's hard to align statements before and after the string assignment. – rein Mar 22 '13 at 00:30

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 21 '13 at 23:59

0

The escape for double quotes in C# (and most C family languages) is \"

Or you could just use single quotes since it's valid in JavaScript.

answered Mar 21 '13 at 23:59

System Down

6,192
1
30
34

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 22 '13 at 00:01

If I understand your question correctly, you want to concatenate this.ClientID with the rest of the script.

You can do this using the String.Format method like so:

string scriptFormat = @"<script language='javascript'>function ShowDropDown(){var combo = $find(""{0}"");combo.showDropDown(true);}</script>";
string sScript = String.Format(scriptFormat, this.ClientID);

Note that inside a verbatim string literal, "" produces a single " character.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 22 '13 at 00:02

0

You can escape them using the \ character.

For a complete list of escape combinations, see section 2.4.4.4 Character literals of the C# language specification.

answered Mar 22 '13 at 00:02

Bryan Crosby

6,486
3
36
55

Mark Schultheiss · Answer 6 · 2013-03-22T12:37:03.657

0

NOTE: language is deprecated for script tags, use type

string sScript =@"
<script type='text/javascript'>
function ShowDropDown(){
                var combo = $find(""" + this.ClientID + @""");
                combo.showDropDown(true);
            }
</script>";

edited Mar 22 '13 at 12:37

answered Mar 22 '13 at 00:18

Mark Schultheiss

32,614
12
69
100

escaping characters

6 Answers6