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Quotes and Escape Characters
Parameter values containing spaces, special characters, and binary values must be used in quotation marks. If a value contains no special characters, then quotes is optional. Runtime Engine supports several quote conventions for representing data:
Single Quotes
Single quotes indicate to use the values enclosed in single quotes literally. No escaping is used with single quotes. Single quotes (') are used around text values that include blanks, equal signs (=), or semicolons (;). For example:
'InstallDir\ProductName\Data Directory'FieldSeparator=';'
Double Quotes
Enclose multi-word values (containing spaces or special characters) in quotes, otherwise only the characters prior to the space or special character is used. For example, C:\Program Files\MyData is read as C:\Program unless the string is enclosed in quotes.
Double quotes enable escaping through the use of the backslash (\). For example, if the special character semicolon is a value that is in double quotes, it must be represented as backslash semicolon (\;) so that the Runtime Engine uses the actual value (;).
Sometimes values are already enclosed in double quotes. In this case, the backslash character must be used prior to the special characters. For example:
"File=\"C:\\Program Files\\InstallDir\\Data\
Directory\";FieldSeparator=\";\";
Control Characters in Double Quotes
If the data includes control characters or binary values, double quotes (") must be used. When enclosed by double quotes, the backslash (\) can be used as the escape mechanism. This escaping convention is similar to the one used in the C language. When a backslash appears in the text, it indicates the start of an escape sequence. The following escape sequences are supported:
 
Escape Sequence
Description
\\
Backslash
\''
Double quote
\n
ASCII line feed
\r
ASCII carriage return
\t
ASCII tab
\0
ASCII null
\ddd
Decimal representation of character
\xdd
Hex representation of character
Override Strings Enclosed in Double Quotes
If an option file override string is enclosed in double quotes, then Runtime Engine uses backslash as an escape character. To avoid errors, you can do any of the following:
Use the override string on the command line rather than in an option file
Use forward slashes in the path name rather than backslashes
Enclose the override string in single quotes rather than double
Use a double backslash as the escape character for backslash.
Last modified date: 02/09/2024