Introduction
The data subtype quoted string is applied in following cases:
- Plain text or text inside single quotation marks is written into B4P variables.
- Plain text or text inside single quotation marks is used in B4P expressions and comparisons.
Following features apply to softquoted strings only:
- Symbols like '*' or '?' are treated as wildcards for comparisons and when the equal sign = or not-equal sign <> is used
Note: This is not the case for the other comparison operators such as == and !=. - Accessing tables: A single point may be used to access the current coolumn if the table context allows this.
- Shifted table column specifications: Table header names may be prefixed with one or more < or > to access neighboring columns.
- Some functions support dedicated values in place of column header names in their parameeters, e.g. '#row' or '*' in specific function parameters such as in table lookup() and table consolidate().
With Text Inside Single Quotation Marks
a[] = 'Hello World';
b[] = 'Hello World';
c[] = ' Hello World ';
echo( 'a[] = "', a[], '"');
echo( 'b[] = "', b[], '"');
echo( 'c[] = "', c[], '"');
echo( 'Subtype of a[] is ', subtype( a[] ) );
echo( "Simple comparison returning 'true': ", Hello = '*llo' ); // softquoted strings support wildcardsOutput:
a[] = "Hello World"
b[] = "Hello World"
c[] = " Hello World "
Subtype of a[] is softquoted string
Simple comparison returning 'true': true
With Plain Text
a[] = Hello World;
b[] = Hello World;
c[] = Hello World ;
echo( 'a[] = "', a[], '"');
echo( 'b[] = "', b[], '"');
echo( 'c[] = "', c[], '"');
echo( 'Subtype of a[] is ', subtype( a[] ) );
echo( "Simple comparison returning 'true': ", Hello = '*llo' ); // softquoted strings support wildcards
echo;
echo("Following texts are read as softquoted strings");
a[] = 07.04.2020; // String constant, because it contains two points
b[] = 555 1212; // Contains a space
c[] = 1 Main St.; // This is a valid string constant
d[] = mike@example.com; // Valid, too. See note below.
echo( 'a[] = "', a[], '" Subtype: ', subtype(a[]));
echo( 'b[] = "', b[], '" Subtype: ', subtype(b[]));
echo( 'c[] = "', c[], '" Subtype: ', subtype(c[]));
echo( 'd[] = "', d[], '" Subtype: ', subtype(d[]));
echo;
echo("Combine softquoted and quoted string:");
a[] = Hello + ' World';
b[] = Hello + " World";
echo( 'a[] = "', a[], '" Subtype: ', subtype(a[])); // softquoted string
echo( 'b[] = "', b[], '" Subtype: ', subtype(b[])); // quoted string
Output:
a[] = "Hello World"
b[] = "Hello World"
c[] = "Hello World"
Subtype of a[] is softquoted string
Simple comparison returning 'true': true
Following texts are read as softquoted strings
a[] = "07.04.2020" Subtype: softquoted string
b[] = "555 1212" Subtype: softquoted string
c[] = "1 Main St." Subtype: softquoted string
d[] = "mike@example.com" Subtype: softquoted string
Combine softquoted and quoted string:
a[] = "Hello World" Subtype: softquoted string
b[] = "Hello World" Subtype: quoted string