quote

This page explains how to use the quote function in APL.

Use the quote function in APL to return a string literal representation of a given input value. This function wraps the value in double quotation marks and escapes any internal double quotes or special characters as needed. This is especially useful when you want to ensure that string values are safely embedded in dynamically constructed queries, logs, or debug output without being misinterpreted.

You can use quote to:

• Safely format strings for output or reuse.
• Prevent syntax errors when generating queries dynamically.
• Inspect values that contain special or unexpected characters.

Use this function when you need to serialize a string value exactly as it would appear in an APL query.

For users of other query languages

If you come from other query languages, this section explains how to adjust your existing queries to achieve the same results in APL.

Splunk SPL users

Splunk doesn’t provide a direct equivalent to quote. However, you can use tostring() or replace() combinations to prepare literal-safe outputs, although escaping and quoting must often be handled manually.

Splunk example

| eval quoted_value="'" . replace(myfield,"'","\\'") . "'"

ANSI SQL users

ANSI SQL does not have a direct quote() function. You typically handle quoting and escaping manually using REPLACE() or CONCAT() to build quoted strings, which can be error-prone for nested or dynamic queries.

SQL example

SELECT CONCAT('''', REPLACE(name, '''', ''''''), '''') AS quoted_name FROM authors;

Usage

Syntax

quote(value)

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
value	string	The value to quote and escape

Returns

A string value representing the input enclosed in double quotes, with internal quotes and escape sequences handled appropriately.

Use case examples

Log analysis

In log analysis, you might want to safely quote URI strings for inclusion in alerts or dashboards.

Query

['sample-http-logs']
| where method == 'POST'
| summarize count() by quoted_uri = quote(uri)

Run in Playground

Output

quoted_uri	count_
“/api/login”	83
”/api/purchase”	61
”/search?q%3Derror”	12

This query quotes the URI paths in log entries, ensuring that any special characters are preserved in output.