String literals

A string literal is string data directly specified in a program. In Ruby, we use the single-quote, or double-quote character to create string literals.

Simple string literals can be contained in quotes. More complex literals can begin with the percentage sign, and continue for multiple lines.

Simple literals

We can use single or double quotes in Ruby programs to enclose string literals. The choice mostly depends on what syntax you prefer.

# Use single and double quotes.
result = 'bird'
puts result

result = "bird"
puts result
bird
bird

Complex example

We use the percent "%" character at the start of 2 literals. In this form, we can use another character, such as a vertical bar or "+" as a delimiter.

# String literals.
value1 = %|This is "ruby" string|
value2 = %+This is also 'one'+
value3 = "This is another \"string\""

# Display results.
puts value1
puts value2
puts value3
This is "ruby" string
This is also 'one'
This is another "string"

Line break

With delimiter characters containing a string literal, we can enclose a newline char. This helps with multi-line string data.

# String literal with line break.
test = %|What about
the time you said...?|

puts test
What about
the time you said...?

String literals are used in most Ruby programs. They can be passed as arguments, or used in assignments to local variables. They can be used like any other string.