[Info-vax] SEARCH ''

[George Cornelius]

David Jones <osuvman50 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Monday, January 17, 2022 at 3:52:13 PM UTC-5, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>> I had occasion to SEARCH for the string '' in a file. 
>> 
>> Is there any way to do this? (It gets expanded as an empty symbol; I 
>> don't know how to prevent that.) 
>> 
> 
> $ dsq = "'" + "'"   ! make symbol containing 2 single quotes
> $ search myfile.txt &dsq

What's wrong with the old familiar way?

  $ search myfile.txt "''dsq'"   ?

This has benefits as well when searching for more complex sequences: 

  $ pip tick="'" ; search myfile.txt "''tick'''tick'MYSYMBOL''tick'"

I don't use &symbol often because I'm not sure I understand
precisely how it differs from the ''symbol' embedded in DQ's.

George