Editing String (computer science) (section)

== Literal strings ==
{{Main|String literal}}

Sometimes, strings need to be embedded inside a text file that is both human-readable and intended for consumption by a machine.  This is needed in, for example, source code of programming languages, or in configuration files. In this case, the NUL character does not work well as a terminator since it is normally invisible (non-printable) and is difficult to input via a keyboard.  Storing the string length would also be inconvenient as manual computation and tracking of the length is tedious and error-prone.

Two common representations are:
* Surrounded by [[quotation mark]]s (ASCII [[hexadecimal#Using 0–9 and A–F|0x22]] double quote <code>"str"</code> or ASCII 0x27 single quote <code>'str'</code>), used by most programming languages. To be able to include special characters such as the quotation mark itself, newline characters, or non-printable characters, [[Escape character|escape sequence]]s are often available, usually prefixed with the [[backslash]] character (ASCII 0x5C).
* Terminated by a [[newline]] sequence, for example in Windows [[INI file]]s.