Thanks for the details, and especially for pointing out the difference
between parsing and storing (or representing, I suppose, if it is in a
message box or something). As I mentioned in a reply to Douglas, I just
need to remember that double quotes are a special case, and need to be
thought about differently than other characters.

I don't want even to think about using single quotes, unless I find that
they offer functionality that can't be found elsewhere. There are too many
way to do the same thing as it is.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain. This concept will eventually
lodge in my brain, and then something else can come along to puzzle me in
its stead.

"Sylvain Lafontaine" sylvain aei ca (fill the blanks, no spam please)
wrote in message ...
You must understand the difference between sparsing and storing the
internal representation.

When the compiler parse a string that you have wrote, it must be able to
make a distinction between an embedded quote to must be stored along with
the other caracters (for example « shouldn"t » and a quote that is used to
indicate the end of the string. When you write something like
"shouldn"t" , the first and last " are not stored with the other caracters
and are only there to indicate to the compiler the beginning and the end
of the string. However, when the compiler see the embedded " followed by
other alphanumeric caracters, it doesn't know if this is the end of the
string or an error that you have made.

If you write two "", you are effectively telling the computer that this "
is not there to indicate the end of the string but is a caractere that
must be stored like every other caracters in the string. Howerver, even
if you have wrote two embedded double quotes, the compiler will store a
single one (and won't store the first and the last quotes that are only
there to indicate the beginning and the end of the string).

It's must clearer when you use another symbol like \ to separate any
embedded quote from the delimiters, like in C, C++ and C# :

... "shouldn\"t" ...

With SQL, you cant also use the single quote ' as the delimiter:

... 'shouldn"t' ...

Of course, you must then double any embedded single quote to have two
single quotes:

... 'shouldn''t' ...

With Chr(34), there is no need to tell the compiler when does it begin and
when does it end. The important thing to remember is that in all the
above cases, there is only one double quote (or single quote for the last
example) that got stored and that the other quotes that are used as
delimiters are not stored internally.

--
Sylvain Lafontaine, ing.
MVP - Technologies Virtual-PC
E-mail: http://cerbermail.com/?QugbLEWINF


"BruceM" wrote in message
...
I guess I'll just have to accept that it works, and forget about
understanding how. My single biggest difficulty with VBA is understanding
quotes. I have read all kinds of explanations, but somehow I just can't
seem to get it. If I enter ?Chr(34) or ?Chr$(34) in the immediate window
I get a double quote, yet ?Asc(""") returns an error, even though Asc("'")
returns 39. In all cases except the double quote (all cases of printing
characters, at least, as far as I can tell), the Asc function returns the
literal value betweeen the double quotes, except when the literal value is
a double quote, in which case all bets are off.


Douglas J. Steele" wrote in message
...
In code, """" (four double quotes in a row) results in a one double
quote. Chr$(34) also results in a one double quote.

From the Immediate window (Ctrl-G)

?"""" = Chr$(34)
True


--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP
http://I.Am/DougSteele
(no e-mails, please!)


"BruceM" wrote in message
...
I'm curious as to how Chr(34), which is as I understand it a double
quote, could substitute for a pair of doubled quotes. I have seen this
suggestion before, but I don't understand it.

"Sylvain Lafontaine" sylvain aei ca (fill the blanks, no spam please)
wrote in message ...
Each double quote delimited by other double quotes must be doubled:

If temp_word """" Then ...

You could also use Chr(34):

If temp_word Chr(34) Then ...

--
Sylvain Lafontaine, ing.
MVP - Technologies Virtual-PC
E-mail: http://cerbermail.com/?QugbLEWINF


"00KobeBrian" wrote in message
...
I tried to write the following code in a module:

If temp_word """ Then

End If

But given syntax error. I want to check if the temp_word is equal to
a double quotation mark. How can I achieve this? Thanks.