vb.net - How to add open and close quotes if A string has spaces

Question

I'm trying to write an If then statement to see if a string has a space in it. If it does, I want it to put an " and " around the variable. Below is my current code:

If ColumnText.Contains(" ") Then
                        MsgBox(""" & ColumnText & """)
                    End If
                Next

But it's seeing quoting everything... Any suggestions?

Answer 1

To properly escape a double quote inside VB's double quoted string literal, you need to double it (no pun intended). This means an empty string "". When you squeeze a quote in it, you get 4 quotes """", and this really means just one double quote literal.

You should be using:

MsgBox("""" & ColumnText & """")

Instead of:

MsgBox(""" & ColumnText & """)

Another thing - notice how the syntax parser highlights your line when it has 3 quotes. In this case & ColumnText & is part of the literal, instead of being an inline variable.

Reference:

• String literals @ MSDN.