CLHS: Section 2.4.5

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## 2.4.5 Double-Quote

Syntax: `"<<`text`>>"`

The double-quote is used to begin and end a string. When a double-quote is encountered, characters are read from the input stream and accumulated until another double-quote is encountered. If a single escape character is seen, the single escape character is discarded, the next character is accumulated, and accumulation continues. The accumulated characters up to but not including the matching double-quote are made into a simple string and returned. It is implementation-dependent which attributes of the accumulated characters are removed in this process.

Examples of the use of the double-quote character are in the next figure.

    "Foo"                      ;A string with three characters in it
    ""                         ;An empty string
    "\"APL\\360?\" he cried."  ;A string with twenty characters
    "|x| = |-x|"               ;A ten-character string

Figure 2-18. Examples of the use of double-quote

Note that to place a single escape character or a double-quote into a string, such a character must be preceded by a single escape character. Note, too, that a multiple escape character need not be quoted by a single escape character within a string.

For information on how the Lisp printer prints strings, see Section 22.1.3.4 (Printing Strings).

The following X3J13 cleanup issue, not part of the specification, applies to this section:

- CHARACTER-PROPOSAL:2-1-1

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