New Line in Constant error

Question

I am writing a c# code in which i am fetching values from the database and using it. The problem i am facing is as below.

If my fetched value from the database is :

 string cat1 = "sotheby's"; 

now while using this cat i want to insert an escape character before single quote, to achieve this i have written the below code:

  string cat1 = "sotheby's";                     if (cat1.Contains("'")) {                         var indexofquote = cat1.IndexOf("'");                         cat1.Insert(indexofquote-1,"\");                         var cat2 = cat1;                     } 

The error rises in insert line, the backslash(escape character). The error is New Line in Constant. Please help me how to correct this error.

Answer 1

You can't just write "\" in C# code. That will produce the "New Line in Constant" error because it 'escapes' the second quote so that it doesn't count. And the string isn't closed.

Use either "\\" (escaping the \ with itself)
or use @"\" (a verbatim string).

Answer 2

The Backslash in string literals is an escape character, so it must either be escaped itself:

"\\" 

Or you can use a so-called verbatim string literal:

@"\" 

See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa691090.aspx

Regarding your compile error: The backslash escapes the following quotation mark, thus the string literal is not recognized as closed. The following characters ) and ; are valid for string literals, however the line ending (newline) is not. Hence the error.