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Changes to literals

Full SQL standard character string literal syntax

Adriano dos Santos Fernandes

Tracker ticket: #5589

The syntax of character string literals was changed to support the full SQL standard syntax.This means a literal can be “interrupted” by whitespace or a comment.This can be used, for example, to break up a long literal over several lines, or provide inline comments.

<character string literal> ::=
  [ <introducer> <character set specification> ]
    <quote> [ <character representation>... ] <quote>
    [ { <separator> <quote> [ <character representation>... ] <quote> }... ]

<separator> ::=
  { <comment> | <white space> }...
— ISO/IEC 9075-2:2016 SQL - Part 2: Foundation
Examples
-- whitespace between literal
select 'ab'
       'cd'
from RDB$DATABASE;
-- output: 'abcd'

-- comment and whitespace between literal
select 'ab' /* comment */ 'cd'
from RDB$DATABASE;
-- output: 'abcd'