User Guide

210 Working with Strings
var str2:String = new String(str1);
var str3:String = new String(); // str3 == null
The following two strings are equivalent:
var str1:String = "hello";
var str2:String = new String("hello");
To use single quotation marks (') within a string literal defined with single quotation mark
(
') delimiters, use the backslash escape character (\). Similarly, to use double quotation marks
(
") within a string literal defined with double quotation marks (") delimiters, use the
backslash escape character (
\). The following two strings are equivalent:
var str1:String = "That's \"A-OK\"";
var str2:String = 'That\'s "A-OK"';
You may choose to use single quotation marks or double quotation marks based on any single
or double quotation marks that exist in a string literal, as in the following:
var str1:String = "ActionScript <span class='heavy'>3.0</span>";
var str2:String = '<item id="155">banana</item>';
Keep in mind that ActionScript distinguishes between a straight single quotation mark (')
and a left or right single quotation mark (
‘ or ’). The same is true for double quotation
marks. Use straight quotation marks to delineate string literals. When pasting text from
another source into ActionScript, be sure to use the correct characters.
As the following table shows, you can use the backslash escape character (
\) to define other
characters in string literals:
Escape sequence Character
\b
Backspace
\f
Form feed
\n
Newline
\r
Carriage return
\t
Tab
\unnnn
The Unicode character with the character code specified by the
hexadecimal number
nnnn; for example, \u263a is the smiley
character.
\xnn
The ASCII character with the character code specified by the
hexadecimal number
nn
\'
Single quotation mark
\"
Double quotation mark
\\
Single backslash character