</script> in String Constant

[Jonathan Wood]

I have an ASPX page with my C# code in a <script> block within the page
itself (not a code-behind file).

Within that code, the syntax highlighter indicates the following string
constant ends just before the "</script>", and the line produces the error
"Newline in constant." Changing that portion of the string to "<//script>"
causes the syntax highlighter to indicate a normal string.

string jScript = "<script>document.forms[0].submit();</script>";

Okay, so I would expect </script> to end my ASP.NET script block, but not
when it appears within a string constant.

Is this a bug, or am I prohibitted from having string constants that contain
"</script>"?

Thanks.

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

Without any particular knowledge, I am just guessing.

I guess it does make sense. How does the guy sitting behind your screen and
compiling your scripts know where the script ends? He knows it by the
</script> tag. How can he know that the tag is within some
language-dependant element like a string? Probably he can't. Perhaps, he
first defines where the script begins and ends and then passes the whole
script for compiling. If it is true, he can't ignore the </script> tag
inside a string simply because he doesn't know anything about c# strings at
this stage.

--
Eliyahu Goldin,
Software Developer
Microsoft MVP [ASP.NET]
http://msmvps.com/blogs/egoldin
http://usableasp.net

 

[Jonathan Wood]

Eliyahu,

Without any particular knowledge, I am just guessing.

I guess it does make sense. How does the guy sitting behind your screen
and compiling your scripts know where the script ends? He knows it by the
</script> tag. How can he know that the tag is within some
language-dependant element like a string? Probably he can't. Perhaps, he
first defines where the script begins and ends and then passes the whole
script for compiling. If it is true, he can't ignore the </script> tag
inside a string simply because he doesn't know anything about c# strings
at this stage.

Maybe, but it seems a bit limiting if you can put stuff like that even
within a constant.

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

--
Eliyahu Goldin,
Software Developer
Microsoft MVP [ASP.NET]
http://msmvps.com/blogs/egoldin
http://usableasp.net

I have an ASPX page with my C# code in a <script> block within the page
itself (not a code-behind file).

Within that code, the syntax highlighter indicates the following string
constant ends just before the "</script>", and the line produces the
error "Newline in constant." Changing that portion of the string to
"<//script>" causes the syntax highlighter to indicate a normal string.

string jScript = "<script>document.forms[0].submit();</script>";

Okay, so I would expect </script> to end my ASP.NET script block, but not
when it appears within a string constant.

Is this a bug, or am I prohibitted from having string constants that
contain "</script>"?

Thanks.

 

[Barrie Wilson]

message

I guess it does make sense. How does the guy sitting behind your screen
and compiling your scripts know where the script ends? He knows it by the
</script> tag.

unless that </script> tag is part of a string of characters enclosed within
double quotes; in effect: ok, I'm looking for the end of the script block
... oh, some quotation marks here ... now let me look for the close quotation
mark before I resume looking for the close of the script block ... no? what
am I missing?

How can he know that the tag is within some language-dependant element
like a string? Probably he can't. Perhaps, he first defines where the
script begins and ends and then passes the whole script for compiling.

If it is true, he can't ignore the </script> tag inside a string simply
because he doesn't know anything about c# strings at this stage.

why not? "he" is a C# compiler after all; I'm not understanding why "he"
can't look at this:

string jScript = "<script>document.forms[0].submit();</script>";

and know that we have a string assignment going on and </script> is not
ending anything in this context ... or that <script> is not violating any
nesting rules

 

[Jonathan Wood]

The more I think about this, the more I think "he" is NOT a C# compiler.

I suspect what is happending is the ASPX parser first pulls out script code
and then passes that script to the C# compiler. So it is the ASPX parser
that determines where the end of the script is, not the compiler.

Definitely a quirk, but my best assessment is that this is what is
happening.

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

message

I guess it does make sense. How does the guy sitting behind your screen
and compiling your scripts know where the script ends? He knows it by the
</script> tag.

unless that </script> tag is part of a string of characters enclosed
within double quotes; in effect: ok, I'm looking for the end of the
script block .. oh, some quotation marks here ... now let me look for the
close quotation mark before I resume looking for the close of the script
block ... no? what am I missing?

How can he know that the tag is within some language-dependant element
like a string? Probably he can't. Perhaps, he first defines where the
script begins and ends and then passes the whole script for compiling.

If it is true, he can't ignore the </script> tag inside a string simply
because he doesn't know anything about c# strings at this stage.

why not? "he" is a C# compiler after all; I'm not understanding why "he"
can't look at this:

string jScript = "<script>document.forms[0].submit();</script>";

and know that we have a string assignment going on and </script> is not
ending anything in this context ... or that <script> is not violating any
nesting rules

 

[Barrie Wilson]

The more I think about this, the more I think "he" is NOT a C# compiler.

I suspect what is happending is the ASPX parser first pulls out script
code and then passes that script to the C# compiler. So it is the ASPX
parser that determines where the end of the script is, not the compiler.

Definitely a quirk, but my best assessment is that this is what is
happening.

whatever ... the code you're writing should be parsable by *something*
rather than erroring out is my point; I didn't think it was really the
point which code was doing which work here ... or does someone disagree that
it should be parsable without error ... the expression is not ambiguous the
way I see it

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

message

I guess it does make sense. How does the guy sitting behind your screen
and compiling your scripts know where the script ends? He knows it by
the </script> tag.

unless that </script> tag is part of a string of characters enclosed
within double quotes; in effect: ok, I'm looking for the end of the
script block .. oh, some quotation marks here ... now let me look for the
close quotation mark before I resume looking for the close of the script
block ... no? what am I missing?

How can he know that the tag is within some language-dependant element
like a string? Probably he can't. Perhaps, he first defines where the
script begins and ends and then passes the whole script for compiling.

If it is true, he can't ignore the </script> tag inside a string simply
because he doesn't know anything about c# strings at this stage.

why not? "he" is a C# compiler after all; I'm not understanding why
"he" can't look at this:

string jScript = "<script>document.forms[0].submit();</script>";

and know that we have a string assignment going on and </script> is not
ending anything in this context ... or that <script> is not violating any
nesting rules

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

Yes, this is what I wanted to say.

--
Eliyahu Goldin,
Software Developer
Microsoft MVP [ASP.NET]
http://msmvps.com/blogs/egoldin
http://usableasp.net

The more I think about this, the more I think "he" is NOT a C# compiler.

I suspect what is happending is the ASPX parser first pulls out script
code and then passes that script to the C# compiler. So it is the ASPX
parser that determines where the end of the script is, not the compiler.

Definitely a quirk, but my best assessment is that this is what is
happening.

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

message

I guess it does make sense. How does the guy sitting behind your screen
and compiling your scripts know where the script ends? He knows it by
the </script> tag.

unless that </script> tag is part of a string of characters enclosed
within double quotes; in effect: ok, I'm looking for the end of the
script block .. oh, some quotation marks here ... now let me look for the
close quotation mark before I resume looking for the close of the script
block ... no? what am I missing?

How can he know that the tag is within some language-dependant element
like a string? Probably he can't. Perhaps, he first defines where the
script begins and ends and then passes the whole script for compiling.

If it is true, he can't ignore the </script> tag inside a string simply
because he doesn't know anything about c# strings at this stage.

why not? "he" is a C# compiler after all; I'm not understanding why
"he" can't look at this:

string jScript = "<script>document.forms[0].submit();</script>";

and know that we have a string assignment going on and </script> is not
ending anything in this context ... or that <script> is not violating any
nesting rules

 

[Hans Kesting]

Jonathan Wood pretended :

I have an ASPX page with my C# code in a <script> block within the page
itself (not a code-behind file).

Within that code, the syntax highlighter indicates the following string
constant ends just before the "</script>", and the line produces the error
"Newline in constant." Changing that portion of the string to "<//script>"
causes the syntax highlighter to indicate a normal string.

string jScript = "<script>document.forms[0].submit();</script>";

Okay, so I would expect </script> to end my ASP.NET script block, but not
when it appears within a string constant.

Is this a bug, or am I prohibitted from having string constants that contain
"</script>"?

Thanks.

In old ASP the usual workaround was
string jScript = "<script>document.forms[0].submit();</sc" + "ript>";


Hans Kesting