How do I escape a single quote in SQL Server?

Question

I'm trying to insert some text data into a table in SQL Server 9.

The text includes a single quote(').

How do I escape that?

I tried using two single quotes, but it threw me some errors.

eg. insert into my_table values('hi, my name''s tim.');

Answer 1

Single quotes are escaped by doubling them up, just as you've shown us in your example. The following SQL illustrates this functionality. I tested it on SQL Server 2008:

DECLARE @my_table TABLE (
    [value] VARCHAR(200)
)

INSERT INTO @my_table VALUES ('hi, my name''s tim.')

SELECT * FROM @my_table

Results

value
==================
hi, my name's tim.

Answer 2

If escaping your single quote with another single quote isn't working for you (like it didn't for one of my recent REPLACE() queries), you can use SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF before your query, then SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON after your query.

For example

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF;

UPDATE TABLE SET NAME = REPLACE(NAME, "'S", "S");

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
-- set OFF then ON again

Answer 3

How about:

insert into my_table values('hi, my name'+char(39)+'s tim.')

Answer 4

The doubling up of the quote should have worked, so it's peculiar that it didn't work for you; however, an alternative is using double quote characters, instead of single ones, around the string. I.e.,

insert into my_table values("hi, my name's tim.");

Answer 5

2 ways to work around this:

---

for ' you can simply double it in the string, e.g. select 'I''m happpy' -- will get: I'm happy

---

For any charactor you are not sure of: in sql server you can get any char's unicode by select unicode(':')

So this case you can also select 'I'+nchar(39)+'m happpy'

Answer 6

Also another thing to be careful of is whether or not it is really stored as a classic ASCII ' (ASCII 27) or Unicode 2019 (which looks similar, but not the same).

This isn't a big deal on inserts, but it can mean the world on selects and updates.
If it's the unicode value then escaping the ' in a WHERE clause (e.g where blah = 'Workers''s Comp') will return like the value you are searching for isn't there if the ' in "Worker's Comp" is actually the unicode value.

If your client application supports free-key, as well as copy and paste based input, it could be Unicode in some rows, and ASCII in others!

A simple way to confirm this is by doing some kind of open ended query that will bring back the value you are searching for, and then copy and paste that into notepad++ or some other unicode supporting editor.

The differing appearance between the ascii value and the unicode one should be obvious to the eyes, but if you lean towards the anal, it will show up as 27 (ascii) or 92 (unicode) in a hex editor.

Answer 7

This should work: use a back slash and put a double quote

"UPDATE my_table SET row =\"hi, my name's tim.\";

Answer 8

This should work

DECLARE @singleQuote CHAR 
SET @singleQuote =  CHAR(39)

insert into my_table values('hi, my name'+ @singleQuote +'s tim.')

Answer 9

Just insert a ' before anything to be inserted. It will be like a escape character in sqlServer

Example: When you have a field as, I'm fine. you can do: UPDATE my_table SET row ='I''m fine.';

Answer 10

string value = "Abhishek's";

value = Replace(value,"'","''");