in vbs, chr(34) equals TWO double-quotes

in the Immediate window I typed:
thecommand = chr(34) & " & thecommand

and got the message
Unterminated string constant
(the value of thecommand was not changed)

I even tried using the MID function to remove one of the quotes... first I used chr(34) to insert two double-quotes, then tried with MID to start at position 1 and it grabbed both double-quotes... yet if I started at position 2 it grabbed NEITHER double-quote i.e. the two double-quotes count as a single position.

If we removed the space from the folder name we would have to update a LOT of deploy scripts... so I want to be sure there's no other choice...

Thanks again for your help

I think you need thecommand to be:

    thecommand = "del " & Chr(34) & "v:/parent folder/filetodelete" & Chr(34)

Then you should be able to leave the WshShell line as it was:

    WshShell.Run "cmd /c " & thecommand, 1, True

If you want to make that more generic then:

    path = "v:/parent folder/filetodelete"

Followed by:

    thecommand = "del " & Chr(34) & path & Chr(34)

I am hopeful that you will understand the rules before I have to understand your precise problem.

In VB, you specify a string with surrounding quotes:
strMyString = "something"

If you need an embedded pair of quotation marks, you can 'escape' the character with another pair.

So to specify the string: some"thing
You would need
strMyString = "some""thing"

Alternatively you could have

strMyString = "some" & Chr$(34) & "thing"

If you need to embed the string into some other, perhaps VB, interpreter, then you will have to consider what is needed at that level and work backwards, adding extra quotes, or Chr$(34), according to what the interpretation level understands.

Graham Skan, what I actually need is an embedded SINGLE double-quote.  Wherever I use chr(34) I get TWO double-quotes.  
i.e. strMyString = "some" & Chr(34) & "thing" will generate
"some""thing"
when what I need is
"some"thing".

Idle Mind, I think that in both of your examples, I would end up with the path being surrounded by TWO double-quotes instead of one (because chr(34) by default, in VBScript, equals two double-qoutes).

If I have mis-interpreted your suggestions please forgive me...

Again, I think that we are into a level of interpretation

If you use the immediate window,
?"some" & Chr(34) & "thing" will generate
some"thing

Graham Skan,  are you sure that holds true if the code being executed is VBSCRIPT (as opposed to VB.NET)?  Here's a copy-and-paste of what I got in the immediate window while debugging my VBScript using wscript with Visual Studio 2005:

?"some" & Chr(34) & "thing"
"some""thing"

I'm guessing your example was generated while debugging something other than VBScript...?   So far I still can't figure out a way to get around the fact that in VBScript, Chr(34) generates TWO double-quotes...

Thanks once again for your suggestions...

jim_west states:

    "because chr(34) by default, in VBScript, equals two double-qoutes)."

This is NOT the case.  Not sure how you are ending up with that conclusion.

Please try this, by ITSELF:

    MsgBox Chr(34)

and tell us what you get.

I get a message box with only one double-quote.  BUT...
If you go to this forum:  http://forums.vandyke.com/showthread.php?t=281
It states matter-of-factly: "VBScript (somewhat counter-intuitively) uses two quotation marks in a row to denote a single quotation mark. "
The proof is in my reply to Graham Skan.  He asked me to run the command ?"some" & Chr(34) & "thing"
in an immediate window.  He thought I would get "some"thing" but instead I got "some""thing" (see my previous reply).
I feel sure that this behavior of Chr(34) is unique to Visual Basic Scripts (i.e. Chr(34) resolves differently in VBScript than in plain old VB) and I cannot figure out a way to get around it.

Frankly, Jim
I am not debugging in VBScript. I am using VBA and/or VB6. But that is because those environments give an instant error message. I am sure that the actual syntax and the effect will be the same in all environments.

If you have access to any of these environments, (e.g. you have a version of MS Office) then I strongly suggest develop your code there and that you piggy-back on their debugging environment.

chr(39) is a single quote mark. what exactly are you trying to do ?

Hi Jim,

I think the reason you are getting two double quotes in your immediate window output may be for the reason explained by GrahamSkan in his first post (ID: 23541410).

If you look at the difference between his immediate window output and yours you will see that yours wraps the output in double quotes, which could well mean that any double quotes contained in the string are then escaped in the same way as Graham explained.

Looking at the thread to link to I can't see anything that states VBScript sends 2 double quotes instead of 1.

The only thing I can see is rlpm's comment that using "" in strings to escape the double quote is counter-intuitive, by which he means its tidier/easier to follow code if you us chr(34) instead of "".

ie. it's easier to tell if you have properly matched quotes in

"some" & chr(34) & "thing"

than

"some""thing"

- the command line rlpm was far more complicated with numerous escaped quotes so it was tricky trying to figure out where jeffe wanted a quote included in the string and where he didn't

when I use the vbscript code below in a vbs file it removes the file without a problem.

Can you post the full WshShell.Run command line as you are using it, plus the definitions of any variables it refers to (replacing any sensitive information with appropriate strings), so we can take a look to see if there is something else wrong.

Dim WshShell
Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
wshshell.run "cmd /c del " & chr(34) & "c:\test folder\test.txt" & chr(34),1,True

                                              

1:
2:
3:

Thanks greatly for all the suggestions.  Later today I will be trying PSSUser's code sample and I will also try Idle Mind's suggestion of using FSO deletefile.  I will report back with what I find hopefully within a day or two.  Thanks again, Jim

I'm pretty sure PSSUser's code is equivalent to my earlier suggestion up here:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Visual_Basic/Q_24109097.html#23541139

Yeah, sorry Idle. I thought I had taken the code from Graham's comments, who I acknowledged in my post.

I only posted the code to highlight that I had actually tried the code as vbscript and it worked - Jim's concern (ID 23542269) was that the tests/coding given by reponsdants was from other langauges/environtments.

Regards,

Chris

It's no big deal Chris...I just wanted to make sure Jim knew he wasn't getting a new "magical double quote fix".  =)

Four different experts are telling him basically the same thing...

No workaround was found for command shell approach, since all evidence points to chr(34) in VBScript representing 2 double-quotes instead of 1.  Alternatively, used the file.delete method of FSO with success.