formatting strings with backslash

Question

I'm a newbie to c# so hopefully this one isn't too hard for a few of you.

I'm trying to build a string that has a \ in it and I am having difficulty getting just one backslash to show up even though I am adding additional escape chars or ignoring them all together. Can someone show me what I am doing wrong?

What I want my string to look like:

"10.20.14.103\sql08"

What I've tried so far:

I added an additional character to make the compiler happy but it did not escape it.

ip = string.Format("{0}\\\\{1}", ip, instancename); // output has 2 \'s

I told it to ignore escapes, it decided to ignore me instead

string temp =  @"192.168.1.200\sql08"; // output has 2 \'s

Can someone help me make sense of this? (The richtext editor here seems to do a better job with it than VS2010 is doing, lol)

such quick replys! I did a debug.assert and indeed did have the correct string value. I guess this is just one of those things you are supposed to know about the visualizer in c# as opposed to vb. Never would have imagined they would behave differently, but now I know. — TWood
– TWood, Commented Sep 14, 2010 at 18:40

Dan Tao · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-14 18:25:44Z

13

I'm guessing you're getting confused by the debugger.

If you hover your mouse over a local variable in VS, strings will be escaped so a single \ will display as \\.

To see what your string really is, output it somewhere for display (e.g., to the console) or hover your mouse on the variable, click on the arrow next to the little magnifying glass that appears, and select "Text Visualizer."

answered Sep 14, 2010 at 18:25

Dan Tao

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Adam Robinson · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-14 18:25:31Z

4

If you're looking at these strings in the debugger (i.e., by hovering the mouse over the variable or using a watch), the debugger adds escape characters to the display string so that it's a valid string expression. If you want to view the string verbatim in this fashion, click on the magnifying glass on the right side of the tooltip or watch entry with the string in it.

answered Sep 14, 2010 at 18:25

Adam Robinson

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Justin Niessner · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-14 18:25:38Z

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I'm guessing you're looking at the values in the debugger and seeing that they have two slashes.

That's normal. The debugger will show two slashes even though the actual string representation will only have one. Just another hump to get over when getting used to the debugger.

Be assured that when you actually use your strings, they will still only have a single slash (using either of your methods).

answered Sep 14, 2010 at 18:25

Justin Niessner

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Taryn · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-24 20:59:59Z

1

string requiredString = string.Format(@"{0}\\{1}",str1,str2);

edited Jun 24, 2013 at 20:59

Taryn

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answered Jun 24, 2013 at 17:15

Pritesh

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