Dollar-quoted string literals

Dollar-quoted string literals are rarely used, but are provided here for your convenience.

The standard syntax for specifying string literals can be difficult to understand. To allow more readable queries in such situations, Vertica SQL provides dollar quoting. Dollar quoting is not part of the SQL standard, but it is often a more convenient way to write complicated string literals than the standard-compliant single quote syntax.

Syntax

$$characters$$

Parameters

characters

Arbitrary sequence of characters bounded by paired dollar signs ($$)

Dollar-quoted string content is treated as a literal. Single quote, backslash, and dollar sign characters have no special meaning within a dollar-quoted string.

Notes

A dollar-quoted string that follows a keyword or identifier must be separated from the preceding word by whitespace; otherwise, the dollar-quoting delimiter is taken as part of the preceding identifier.

Examples

=> SELECT $$Fred's\n car$$;
     ?column?
-------------------
 Fred's\n car
(1 row)

=> SELECT 'SELECT 'fact';';
ERROR:  syntax error at or near "';'" at character 21
LINE 1: SELECT 'SELECT 'fact';';

=> SELECT 'SELECT $$fact';$$;
   ?column?
---------------
 SELECT $$fact
(1 row)

=> SELECT 'SELECT ''fact'';';
    ?column?
----------------
 SELECT 'fact';
(1 row)