Embedded SQL string literals are delimited by single quotes. To embed a single quote in a string literal, precede it with another single quote character, as in:

Because the single quote is the SQL string delimiter, Ada single-character literals are treated like SQL string literals. Embedded SQL/Ada string literals cannot be continued over multiple lines.

Note that the preprocessor does not accept the Ada character string delimiter, the double quote ("). No special characters are required to embed a double quote in an Embedded SQL string literal.

The Dynamic SQL statements prepare and execute immediate both use statement strings that specify an SQL statement. The statement string can be specified by a string literal or character string variable, as in:

or:

As with regular Embedded SQL string literals, the statement string delimiter is the single quote. However, single quotes embedded in statement strings must conform to the runtime rules of SQL when the statement is executed. For example, the following two dynamic insert statements are equivalent:

and:

In fact, the string literal generated by the Embedded SQL/Ada preprocessor for the first example is identical to the string literal assigned to the variable "str" in the second example.

The runtime evaluation of the above statement string is:

As a general rule it is best to avoid using a string literal for a statement string whenever it may contain quotes. Instead you should build the statement string using the Ada language rules for string literals together with the SQL rules for the runtime evaluation of the string.