Using quotes in a AppleScript string

applescript
hawkfalcon picture hawkfalcon · May 19, 2012 · Viewed 27.9k times · Source

I am working with AppleScript and need to do this:

set TextToWrite to " #!/bin/bash cd "$( dirname "$0" )" java -server -Xmx4G -jar ./craftbukkit.jar" "

As you can see, the text I need to make into a string has quotes in it. How do I set 

#!/bin/bash cd "$( dirname "$0" )" java -server -Xmx4G -jar ./craftbukkit.jar"

to an AppleScript string without the quotes messing it up?

Answer

kopischke picture kopischke · May 19, 2012

To insert literal quotes into an Applescript string, you have to escape them, i.e.

set myString to "This is a \"quoted\" text."

AppleScript has the same convention as most languages, which is to use a backslash for escaping of special characters, of which there are only two: quotes and … backslash. See the section “Special string characters” of the AppleScript Language Guide.

Related questions

Sending commands and strings to Terminal.app with Applescript

I want to do something like this: tell application "Terminal" activate do script "ssh [email protected]" -- // write user's password -- // write some linux commands to remote server end tell For example to log in to the server, enter …

Read More
How do I make a Mac Terminal pop-up/alert? Applescript?

I want to be able to have my program display an alert, notice, whatever that displays my custom text. How is this done? Also, is it possible to make one with several buttons that sets a variable? Similar to batch's: …

Read More
Open an .html file with default browser using Bash on Mac

So, this is what I need : Let's say I have an index.html file. How do I tell the terminal to open it using the default browser? (Using AppleScript, BASH,...?)

Read More