String format with escaping characters

Question

Thanks a lot for reading my thread. I have a command line which I'd like to format as a string in C#. Here is how the string looks in command line prompt:

I think I only need to know the format starting from run......., I guess I can handle fiji -eval. So this is what I am not su to format:

In case you cannot see it clearly, I re-type the string here:

run("'Bio-Formats Importer'", "'open=[D:\\fiji\\ChanA_0001_0001_0001_0001.tif] display_ome-xml'")

The thing confuses me is the '' inside the "", which I am not confident. Anyone has any idea how to format this command line? Thanks a lot!

A little more edit to extend it to dynamic:

string fileName = string.Empty;
string[] filesList = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(folder, "*.tif");
fileName = filesList[0];

string bioformats = "Bio-Formats Importer";

options = string.Format("open=[{0}] display_ome-xml", fileName);
runCommand = string.Format("run(\"'{0}'\",\"'{1}'\")", bioformats, options);

 string fijiCmdText = string.Format("/C \"\"{0}\" -eval {1}", fijiExeFile, runCommand);

 try
{
      System.Diagnostics.Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
     System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new              System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
       startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
      startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";

       startInfo.Arguments = fijiCmdText;
       process.StartInfo = startInfo;
        process.Start();
        //    _processOn = true;
        process.WaitForExit();

        ret = 1;
     }
      catch (Exception ex)
      {
          ex.ToString();
           ret = 0;
     }

Answer 1

You could use a normal string literal, but you'd have to escape the the quotes with \" and backslashes with \\, like this:

var str = "run(\"'Bio-Formats Importer'\",\"'open=[D:\\\\fiji\\\\ChanA_0001_0001_0001_0001.tif] display_ome-xml'\")";

Or by using a verbatim string literal, but you need to escape the quotes with "", like this:

var str = @"run(""'Bio-Formats Importer'"",""'open=[D:\\fiji\\ChanA_0001_0001_0001_0001.tif] display_ome-xml'"")";

Further Reading

• string (C# Reference)
• 2.4.4.5 String literals

---

Regarding your update, it seems like the problem is that you need to double the slashes in the file path for the benefit of the command line string. I would also recommend simplifying it to something like this:

using System.IO;
using System.Diagnostics;

var filesList = Directory.GetFiles(folder, "*.tif");
var bioformats = "Bio-Formats Importer";
foreach(var fileName in filesList)  // loop through every file
{
    var options = string.Format("open=[{0}] display_ome-xml", fileName.Replace("\\", "\\\\"));
    var args = string.Format("-eval run(\"'{0}'\",\"'{1}'\")", bioformats, options);
    try
    {
        var process = new Process
        {
            StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
            {
                WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
                FileName = fijiExeFile,
                Arguments = args,
            }
        };
        process.Start();
        process.WaitForExit();

        ret = 1;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        ex.ToString();
        ret = 0;
    }
}

Answer 2

To escape, use \. For example, "run(\"'Bio-Formats Importer'\"". For the \ characters, use \\, or in your case \\\\.

You can also use string.Format() to parameterize this: string.Format("run(\"'{0}'\", ...", arg0);