View source for How can I use quotes in a string?

There are three types of possible quotes: single quotes, double quotes and backward single quotes. Any command parameter can be surrounded by any of these three types. Therefore, to use a double quote in a string, simply surround the string with a single quote. It's also possible to escape quotes using a dollar and backslash. For example:<highlight-nsis>MessageBox MB_OK "I'll be happy" ; this one puts a ' inside a string
MessageBox MB_OK 'And he said to me "Hi there!"' ; this one puts a " inside a string
MessageBox MB_OK `And he said to me "I'll be damned!"` ; this one puts both ' and "s inside a string
MessageBox MB_OK "$\"A quote from a wise man$\" said the wise man" ; this one shows escaping of quotes
MessageBox MB_OK "That would be $$60" ; this the first $ will escape the second.
</highlight-nsis>

For more information see the [http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/Chapter4.html#4.1 Script File Format] section in the documentation.

==Build a RegExp that will grab NSIS strings==
Okay let's start with a very simple version:

''"''[^"]*''"''

-> Match any char in between ''"'' and ''"'' that is not a "

Okay next step let's add a group
"([^"])*"
so we might get the string without quotes + we can do
things like alternation with '''|''' 

To take care for escape chars '''$\"''' and '''$$''' the RegExp will be:

"([^$"]|'''$\"'''|'''$$''')*"

->Match any char in between ''"'' and ''"'' that is not a " or $<br>
but keep on matching if it's '$\"' or '$$'


Well that's not quite far from being perfect - but in a real world RE
'''$''' as well as '''\''' have special meanings in a RE.

To use them as char you must escape them like this '''\\''' or '''\$''' so the working RE is this:

"([^$"]|'''\$\\'''"|'''\$\$''')*"

Note: the '$' inside the char group (sometimes!) don't needs escaping (depending on RE-implementation. Do some testing on that to see what's working) 

Now aggregating the double quotes, single quotes and backward single quotes Versions

"([^$"]|\$\\"|\$\$)*"<br>
'([^$']|\$\\'|\$\$)*'<br>
`([^$`]|\$\\`|\$\$)*`<br>


Into one:

'''("([^$"]|\$\\"|\$\$)*"|'([^$']|\$\\'|\$\$)*'|`([^$`]|\$\\`|\$\$)*`)'''

and now you've got the ultimate NSIS RE Monster string that will match all NSIS-strings complete and correctly.

====What to do with this RE now?====

Use it for NSIS syntax highlighting in ya editor's configuration
or for better comparing scripts in 'Beyond compare' by been able to priorise comparison by keywords, strings, Opt out comments. (<- of course you'll need a definition file or define keywords and what's a comment ya self)


[[Category:Scripting FAQ]]