String Literals
You can use either double quotes or single quotes to delimit string literals in EQUEL/Fortran. Be sure that you begin and end the string with the same delimiter.
Whichever quote mark you use, you can embed it as part of the literal itself by doubling it. For example:
## append comments
## (field1 = "a double "" quote is in this string")
or
## append comments
## (field1 = 'a single '' quote is in this string')
To continue an EQUEL statement to additional lines, use the backslash character (\) at the end of the first line. Any leading spaces on the next line are considered part of the string. Therefore, the continued string should start in column 1, where a statement label would normally appear in non-EQUEL lines. For example, the following are legal EQUEL statements:
## message 'Please correct errors found in updating\
the database tables.'
## append to employee (empnam = "Freddie \
Mac", empnum = 222)