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Compound double quotes

  • What does "a"b"c" mean?

    • quoted string "a" followed by the letter b followed by quoted string "c"
      or
    • quoted string a"b"c
  • Compound double quotes make it obvious: `"a"b"c"'
  • Think of compound double quotes as similar to parentheses; they have direction to them to make it obvious what is being quoted:

    • (a(b)c) is obviously different from (a)b(c)
  • programmers should use compound double quotes when referring to a macro that might contain double quotes.
  • programmers could use compound double quotes everywhere in their programs
  • users never need to use compound double quotes