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SQL Server Help: How to use apostrophes in Transact-SQL

Since strings are normally enclosed within single quotes in Transact SQL, it can be a problem if the string's text contains an apostrophe within it, such as the query below:

SELECT *, FROM Products WHERE ProductName = 'King's Jalepenos'

Obviously this SQL query would fail due to the apostrophe in the ProductName. Thankfully though, the solution is simple - just put two apostrophes in the string, as shown below:

SELECT *, FROM Products WHERE ProductName = 'King''s Jalepenos'

Replacing the single quotes with two single quotes should be done wherever a string that may potentially contain a single quote is used within a query. This can be achived in most programming languages by using a Replace function. For example, in Visual Basic.NET the syntax to use would be the following:

Dim ProductName As String = "King's Jalepenos"
Dim SQL As String
SQL = "SELECT *, FROM Products WHERE ProductName = '" & Replace(ProductName, "'", "''") & "'"

Similarly, in C# the Replace function can be used in an identical way:

Dim ProductName As String = "King's Jalepenos"
Dim SQL As String
SQL = "SELECT *, FROM Products WHERE ProductName = '" & Replace(ProductName, "'", "''") & "'"

If your strings are being obtained from user input (e.g. from a web form) then don't forget to remove other characters from strings as well in order to guard against SQL injection attacks. See the article guarding web applications against sql injection attacks for more information.

Useful Links

• The SQL Documentation Tool automatically builds technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server databases, saving you time and money. A trial version is available for download.

• How to concatenate strings together in SQL.

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