Escape double quote in VB string

Question

I have used following piece of code to execute schtasks command from VB6   While executing it  ignores folder if they contains spaces   For example   C  program files test test exe  will be converted to  c  program     How do I solve this issue   MyAppname    Chr 34   amp  App Path  amp       amp  App EXEName  amp    exe   amp  Chr 34  StrCommand    schtasks  create  sc ONLOGON  RL HIGHEST   tn myapp   tr    amp  MyAppname   Shell StrCommand  vbHide      New task added as  c  program  instead of  C  program files test test exe   Thanks in advance

User · Accepted Answer

Escaping quotes in VB6 or VBScript strings is simple in theory although often frightening when viewed. You escape a double quote with another double quote.

An example:

"c:\program files\my app\app.exe"

If I want to escape the double quotes so I could pass this to the shell execute function listed by Joe or the VB6 Shell function I would write it:

escapedString = """c:\program files\my app\app.exe"""

How does this work? The first and last quotes wrap the string and let VB know this is a string. Then each quote that is displayed literally in the string has another double quote added in front of it to escape it.

It gets crazier when you are trying to pass a string with multiple quoted sections. Remember, every quote you want to pass has to be escaped.

If I want to pass these two quoted phrases as a single string separated by a space (which is not uncommon):

"c:\program files\my app\app.exe" "c:\documents and settings\steve"

I would enter this:

escapedQuoteHell = """c:\program files\my app\app.exe"" ""c:\documents and settings\steve"""

I've helped my sysadmins with some VBScripts that have had even more quotes.

It's not pretty, but that's how it works.

User · Answer

Did you try using double-quotes  Regardless  no one in 2011 should be limited by the native VB6 shell command  Here s a function that uses ShellExecuteEx  much more versatile   Option Explicit  Private Const SEE MASK DEFAULT    amp H0  Public Enum EShellShowConstants         essSW HIDE   0         essSW SHOWNORMAL   1         essSW SHOWMINIMIZED   2         essSW MAXIMIZE   3         essSW SHOWMAXIMIZED   3         essSW SHOWNOACTIVATE   4         essSW SHOW   5         essSW MINIMIZE   6         essSW SHOWMINNOACTIVE   7         essSW SHOWNA   8         essSW RESTORE   9         essSW SHOWDEFAULT   10 End Enum  Private Type SHELLEXECUTEINFO         cbSize        As Long         fMask         As Long         hwnd          As Long         lpVerb        As String         lpFile        As String         lpParameters  As String         lpDirectory   As String         nShow         As Long         hInstApp      As Long         lpIDList      As Long      Optional         lpClass       As String    Optional         hkeyClass     As Long      Optional         dwHotKey      As Long      Optional         hIcon         As Long      Optional         hProcess      As Long      Optional End Type  Private Declare Function ShellExecuteEx Lib  shell32 dll  Alias  ShellExecuteExA   lpSEI As SHELLEXECUTEINFO  As Long  Public Function ExecuteProcess ByVal FilePath As String  ByVal hWndOwner As Long  ShellShowType As EShellShowConstants  Optional EXEParameters As String       Optional LaunchElevated As Boolean   False  As Boolean     Dim SEI As SHELLEXECUTEINFO      On Error GoTo Err       Fill the SEI structure     With SEI          cbSize   Len SEI                     Bytes of the structure          fMask   SEE MASK DEFAULT             Check MSDN for more info on Mask          lpFile   FilePath                    Program Path          nShow   ShellShowType                How the program will be displayed          lpDirectory   PathGetFolder FilePath           lpParameters   EXEParameters         Each parameter must be separated by space  If the lpFile member specifies a document file  lpParameters should be NULL           hwnd   hWndOwner                     Owner window handle            Determine launch type  would recommend checking for Vista or greater here also          If LaunchElevated   True Then   And m OpSys IsVistaOrGreater   True              lpVerb    runas          Else              lpVerb    Open          End If     End With       ExecuteProcess   ShellExecuteEx SEI      Execute the program  return success or failure      Exit Function Err        TODO  Log Error     ExecuteProcess   False End Function  Private Function PathGetFolder psPath As String  As String     On Error Resume Next     Dim lPos As Long     lPos   InStrRev psPath           PathGetFolder   Left  psPath  lPos - 1  End Function

User · Answer

Another example   Dim myPath As String         amp  Path Combine part1  part2   amp         Good luck

[string] Escape double quote in VB string

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