Quoted text can be enclosed within single or double quote characters. By convention, double quotes are used for text strings and single quotes for character constants. A quote containing no characters ('' or "") denotes an empty string or a null (zero) character.

The carret (^) character denotes the start of a character escape sequence. If the quote delimiter or a carret (^) is to be included as quoted text, code two for every one desired (^^).

""     ''     'Single'     "Double"      "Isn't"
'^^'    "nested""quotes"""       '"... or not to be."'

Control codes (0 to 31) can be coded as a carret followed by a character whose ASCII value is truncated to the low order 5 bits. Valid control codes are either a single letter or one of these characters:

[   #1b  27          >   #1e  30
\   #1c  28          ?   #1f  31
]   #1d  29          @   #00   0

'^^'          '^C'           "^[xyz^@"

You can aslo write characters using their decimal or hexadecimal representation. Coding a carret followed by exactly three decimal digits encodes a single character.

A carret followed by a pound sign (^#) begins a series of hexadecimal character values. The series consists of one or more pairs of hexadecimal digits terminated by a trailing pound sign. A single underscore may also be included between pairs of digits for readability.

'^027'       '^#1E#'        "^#41_42_43#"      "^123^#00#^j"      "^#1d000a#"

To continue a long quote on multiple lines, code each partial quote and follow each segment except the last with an ampersand. A comment may follow the ampersand.

"The quick red fox jumped"       &First part.
" over the lazy brown dog."      :Last part.