Auto quotes around string in c# - build in method?

Question

Is there some build in method that add quotes around string in c# ?

Answer 1

Do you mean just adding quotes? Like this?

text = "\"" + text + "\"";

? I don't know of a built-in method to do that, but it would be easy to write one if you wanted to:

public static string SurroundWithDoubleQuotes(this string text)
{
    return SurroundWith(text, "\"");
}

public static string SurroundWith(this string text, string ends)
{
    return ends + text + ends;
}

That way it's a little more general:

text = text.SurroundWithDoubleQuotes();

or

text = text.SurroundWith("'"); // For single quotes

I can't say I've needed to do this often enough to make it worth having a method though...

Answer 2

string quotedString = string.Format("\"{0}\"", originalString);

Answer 3

Yes, using concatenation and escaped characters

myString = "\"" + myString + "\"";

Maybe an extension method

public static string Quoted(this string str)
{
    return "\"" + str + "\"";
}

Usage:

var s = "Hello World"
Console.WriteLine(s.Quoted())

Answer 4

No but you can write your own or create an extension method

string AddQuotes(string str)
{
    return string.Format("\"{0}\"", str);
}

Answer 5

Using Escape Characters

Just prefix the special character with a backslash, which is known as an escape character.

Simple Examples

string MyString = "Hello";
Response.Write(MyString);

This would print:

Hello

But:

string MyString = "The man said \"Hello\"";
Response.Write(MyString);

Would print:

The man said "Hello"

Alternative

You can use the useful @ operator to help escape strings, see this link:

http://www.kowitz.net/archive/2007/03/06/the-c-string-literal

Then, for quotes, you would use double quotes to represent a single quote. For example:

string MyString = @"The man said ""Hello"" and went on his way";
Response.Write(MyString);

Outputs:

The man said "Hello" and went on his way

Answer 6

In my case I wanted to add quotes only if the string was not already surrounded in quotes, so I did:

(this is slightly different to what I actually did, so it's untested)

public static string SurroundWith(this string text, string ends)
{
    if (!(text.StartsWith(ends) && text.EndsWith(ends)))
    {
        return string.Format("{1}{0}{1}", text, ends);
    }
    else
    {
        return text;
    } 
}

Answer 7

I'm a bit C# of a novice myself, so have at me, but I have this in a catch-all utility class 'cause I miss Perl:

// overloaded quote - if no quote chars spec'd, use ""
public static string quote(string s) {
    return quote(s, "\"\"");
}

// quote a string
// q = two quote chars, like "", '', [], (), {} ...
//     or another quoted string (quote-me-like-that)
public static string quote(string s, string q) {

    if(q.Length == 0)        // no quote chars, use ""
        q = "\"\"";
    else if(q.Length == 1)    // one quote char, double it - your mileage may vary
        q = q + q;
    else if(q.Length > 2)    // longer string == quote-me-like-that
        q = q.Substring(0, 1) + q.Substring(q.Length - 1, 1);

    if(s.Length == 0)    // nothing to quote, return empty quotes
        return q;

    return q[0] + s + q[1];

}

Use it like this:

quote("this with default");
quote("not recommended to use one char", "/");
quote("in square brackets", "[]");
quote("quote me like that", "{like this?}");

Returns:

"this with default"
/not recommended to use one char/
[in square brackets]
{quote me like that}

Answer 8

Modern C# version below. Using string.Create() we avoid unnecessary allocations:

public static class StringExtensions
{
    public static string Quote(this string s) => Surround(s, '"');

    public static string Surround(this string s, char c)
    {
        return string.Create(s.Length + 2, s, (chars, state) =>
        {
            chars[0] = c;
            state.CopyTo(chars.Slice(1));
            chars[^1] = c;
        });
    }
}

Answer 9

There is no such built in method to do your requirement

There is SplitQuotes method that does something Input - This is a "very long" string Output - This, is, a, very long, string

When you get a string from textbox or some control it comes with quotes.

If still you want to place quotes then you can use this kind of method

private string PlaceQuotes(string str, int startPosition, int lastPosition)
{
    string quotedString = string.Empty;
    string replacedString = str.Replace(str.Substring(0, startPosition),str.Substring(0, startPosition).Insert(startPosition, "'")).Substring(0, lastPosition).Insert(lastPosition, "'");
    return String.Concat(replacedString, str.Remove(0, replacedString.Length));
}