Custom string delimiter messes up syntax highlighting

[PaoloM]

Hello,
since Oracle version 10g, it's possible to define custom string literal delimiters in PL/SQL with the following syntax:

-- q'!...!' notation allows use of single quotes inside literal
string_var := q'!I'm a string, you're a string.!';

In this way you don't need to escape other single quotation marks inside the string literal. You can also use as delimiters the following characters [, {, , and ), for example:

string_var := q'[I'm a string, you are a string.]';

This syntax is very useful when you are working with dynamic SQL, but PL/SQL Developer does not recognize it at all. If there is a single quote in the string literal (like in the second example), all the code following the line using the custom string delimiter will appear in the same color chosen for the string in the editor settings.

I don't know if this should be a bug report or an enhancement request, since using a custom string delimiter in your code and a literal with an odd number of single quotes effectively disables the PSD syntax highlighting in the rest of your code.

Thanks,
Paolo

 

[Marco Kalter]

The syntax highlighting does indeed not recognize these strings yet. We are working on this.