Nesting with three levels of quotations

Question

I am trying to create a php variable that has three levels of nested quotes. How do I make a third level around "tackEvent", "downloads", "all", and "nofilter"? The double quotes that I have there are not working.

  $outputList .= "<a href=files/".$content_file ." onClick='_gaq.push
(["_trackEvent", "downloads", "all", "nofilter"]);' >" . $content_name . 
"</a>";

can you please give us more detail on this? – Astha Sep 30 '11 at 19:01 — Astha, Sep 30 '11 at 19:01

score 39 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 30 '11 at 19:03

39

From here:

Outer quote = " (This marks the beginning and end of the string)
Inner quote = \" (Escaped as to not flag "beginning/end of string")
Third-tier quote = ' (Literal quote)
Fourth-tier quote = \' (Literal quote that will be generated as an escaped outer quote)

answered Sep 30 '11 at 19:03

Nick Brunt

9,533
10
54
83

Sometimes is more convenient to use `'` at second level, so only need to start escaping at third level. That is, switch "inner" and "third-tier". – ToolmakerSteve Jul 15 '20 at 19:38

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 07 '17 at 20:33

3

Outer quote: "
Inner quote: '
Third-tier quote: \"
Fourth-tier quote: "

edited Jun 07 '17 at 20:33

Petter Friberg

21,252
9
60
109

answered Jun 07 '17 at 20:25

Joaquim Neto

49
2

Fourth quote is & q u o t ; – Joaquim Neto Jun 07 '17 at 20:27
1

This does not answer the question. _why_ do you believe this is the answer? _how_ does it work? Simply telling someone to change their code without any context or meaning does not help them learn what they did wrong. – GrumpyCrouton Jun 07 '17 at 20:33

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 30 '11 at 19:02

2

$outputList .= <<<LINK
<a href="files/$content_file" onClick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'downloads', 'all', 'nofilter']);">$content_name</a>
LINK;

This is using heredoc syntax.

answered Sep 30 '11 at 19:02

FtDRbwLXw6

27,774
13
70
107

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 30 '11 at 20:13

1

From the manual:

To specify a literal single quote, escape it with a backslash (\). To specify a literal backslash, double it (\\).

This applies to strings in double quotes as well.

$str = "I am a string with a quote that says, \"I like quotes\"";

edited Sep 30 '11 at 20:13

cwallenpoole

79,954
26
128
166

answered Sep 30 '11 at 18:58

Jeff Lambert

24,395
4
69
96

Nesting with three levels of quotations

4 Answers4