Using Quotes in CL

Using Quotes in CL 

Introduction to Quotation mark in CL

"Quote" means one character (') which is sometimes described as an apostrophe or a tick or a quotation mark. "Double quote" also means one character ("), which is sometimes described as a quotation mark. Do not confuse it with two single quotes ('').

Rule for using Quotation mark in a CL string

If a character string contains single quotation mark then two single quotation mark must be entered consecutively to indicate that it is a single quotation mark.

Program for using quotes (embedded quotes) and quote variable

              PGM                                                                    
              DCL        VAR(&QUOTE) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(1) VALUE('''')                  
              DCL        VAR(&Msg) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(20)                               
                                                                                     
              /* Hello 'i'                                       */                  
              CHGVAR     VAR(&MSG) VALUE('Hello ''i''')                              
              SNDPGMMSG  MSG(&MSG)                                                   
                                                                                     
              /* Hi 'i'                                       */                     
              CHGVAR     VAR(&MSG) VALUE('Hi' *CAT &quote +                          
                         *CAT 'i' *CAT &quote)                                      
              SNDPGMMSG  MSG(&MSG)                                                   
                                                                                     
                                                                                     
              ENDPGM                                                                 

Explanation

Embedding Quotation mark in CL string.

 CHGVAR     VAR(&MSG) VALUE('Hello ''i''')   

Here, the first quotation mark tells the start of the string and the last quotation mark tell the end of the string. Within that Value we have 4 quotation mark i.e. 2 before "i" letter and 2 after it that means the finl value as per the rule in &MSG variable would be Hello 'i'.

Using Quote variable with CL string during concatenation.

              DCL        VAR(&QUOTE) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(1) VALUE('''')   

Here, we are declaring the QUOTE variable of type character and length 1 whose value is single quote (') but as per rule we need to initialize it with 2 single quotes to get one single quote value in the variable.

              CHGVAR     VAR(&MSG) VALUE('Hi' *CAT &quote +                          
                         *CAT 'i' *CAT &quote)            

Here, we are doing concat with QUOTE variable and the final value in &MSG variable would be Hi 'i'.