Use single quotes to delimit embedded SQL string literals. To embed a single quote in a string literal, you must double it.

This insert example writes the following string into the anecdotes column of the comments table:

In embedded SQL statements, the double quote and backslash need not be escaped because they have no special meaning.

To continue a string literal to additional lines, use the backslash (\) character. Any leading spaces on the next line are considered part of the string. This follows the C convention. The following message statement example shows valid use of the backslash character.

Use C conventions in the declaration section. You must use double quotes to delimit most C strings. For example:

The Dynamic SQL statements prepare and execute immediate, both use statement strings that specify an SQL statement. To specify the statement string, use a string literal or character string variable.

As with regular embedded SQL string literals, the statement string delimiter is the single quote. However, quotes embedded in statement strings must conform to SQL runtime rules when the statement executes. For example, the following dynamic insert statement:

is equivalent to the statement:

In fact, the string literal that the embedded SQL/C preprocessor generates for the first example matches the string literal assigned to the variable str in the second example. The runtime evaluation of the above statement string is:

Avoid using a string literal for a statement string whenever it contains quotes or the backslash character. Instead, build the statement string using the C language's rules for string literals together with the SQL rules for the runtime evaluation of the string.