All string literals must be contained within single quotation marks ( ' ' ). All ECL code is UTF-8 encoded, which means that all strings are also UTF-8 encoded, whether Unicode or non-Unicode strings. Therefore, you must use a UTF-8 UTF-8 editor (such as the ECL IDE ECL IDE program). To include the single quote character (apostrophe) in a constant string, prepend a backslash (\). To include the backslash character (\) in a constant string, use two backslashes (\\) together. STRING20 MyString2 := 'Fred\'s Place'; //evaluated as: "Fred's Place" STRING20 MyString3 := 'Fred\\Ginger\'s Place'; //evaluated as: "Fred\Ginger's Place" Other available escape characters are: \t tab \n new line \r carriage return \nnn 3 octal digits (for any other character) \uhhhh lowercase "u" followed by 4 hexadecimal digits (for any other UNICODE-only character) MyString1 := 'abcd'; MyString2 := U'abcd\353'; // becomes 'abcdë' Hexadecimal Hexadecimal string constants string constants must begin with a leading “x” character. Only valid hexadecimal values (0-9, A-F) may be in the character string and there must be an even number of characters. DATA2 MyHexString := x'0D0A'; // a 2-byte hexadecimal string Data string Data string constants constants must begin with a leading “D” character. This is directly equivalent to casting the string constant to DATA. MyDataString := D'abcd'; // same as: (DATA)'abcd' Unicode string Unicode string constants must begin with a leading “U” character. Characters between the quotes are utf8-encoded and the type of the constant is UNICODE. MyUnicodeString1 := U'abcd'; // same as: (UNICODE)'abcd' MyUnicodeString2 := U'abcd\353'; // becomes 'abcdë' MyUnicodeString3 := U'abcd\u00EB'; // becomes 'abcdë' VARSTRING string constants VARSTRING string constants must begin with a leading “V” character. The terminating null byte is implied and type of the constant is VARSTRING. MyVarString := V'abcd'; // same as: (VARSTRING)'abcd' QSTRING string constants QSTRING string constants must begin with a leading “Q” character. The terminating null byte is implied and type of the constant is VARSTRING. MyQString := Q'ABCD'; // same as: (QSTRING)'ABCD' Numeric constants containing a decimal portion are treated as REAL values (scientific notation is allowed) and those without are treated as INTEGER INTEGER (see Value Types). Integer constants may be decimal, hexadecimal, or binary values. Hexadecimal Hexadecimal values are specified with either a leading “0x” or a trailing “x” character. Binary values Binary values are specified with either a leading “0b” or a trailing “b” character. MyInt1 := 10; // value of MyInt1 is the INTEGER value 10 MyInt2 := 0x0A; // value of MyInt2 is the INTEGER value 10 MyInt3 := 0Ax; // value of MyInt3 is the INTEGER value 10 MyInt4 := 0b1010; // value of MyInt4 is the INTEGER value 10 MyInt5 := 1010b; // value of MyInt5 is the INTEGER value 10 MyReal1 := 10.0; // value of MyReal1 is the REAL value 10.0 MyReal2 := 1.0e1; // value of MyReal2 is the REAL value 10.0