String literals in MAXScript are one or more characters enclosed in double quotes:
"3ds max"
"October 5th, 1996"
String literals can contain any character except another plain double quote. You can include a double quote in a string literal, as well as some useful control characters, by using a "\" (backslash) escape character sequence. The valid escape sequences are:
\" -- a double quote character
\n -- a newline character
\r -- a carriage return character
\t -- a TAB character
\* -- an asterisk character
\? -- a question mark character
\\ -- a single "\" character
\% -- a percent character
\x{d} -- a hexadecimal character
Example
print "foo should be quoted like this: \"foo\" and a new line: \n"
would output:
"foo should be quoted like this: "foo" and a new line:
"
A "\" character that does not preface one of the specified characters is left as a single backslash.
You can break a string literal into several lines and the line breaks will stay in the string. For example:
"Twas brillig and the slithy tobes
did gyre and gimbol in the wabe
or something like that..."
Non-Printing Characters in Strings
You can specify non-printing characters in string literals using the \x hexadecimal escape sequence convention from C/C++. The form is:
\x{<hex_digit>}+ -- <hex_digit> is a hexadecimal digit (0-9,a-f)
Example:
str = "Copyright \xa9 1997, FrabWorks, Inc"
would insert a copyright sign ⌐. Hexadecimal a9 is the code for that symbol.
Running the following script displays in Listener the characters associated with each hexadecimal code:
Example:
char="0123456789abcdef"
for i=1 to char.count do
for j=1 to char.count do
(
s=execute("\"\\x"+char[i]+char[j]+"\"")
format "%% %\n" char[i] char[j] s
)
File Path Name Strings
File path name strings use the backslash character to separate a parent directory from its sub-directory. The backslash is used as an escape character, therefore file path names specified in a string should use the escape character sequence for a single "\" character, i.e., "\\". An example is:
scene_path = "g:\\3dsmax25\\scenes" -- specifies file path g:\3dsmax25\scenes
For strings that are used as file names or paths, the "/" character can be used instead of the "\\". MAXScript internally interprets the "/" character as a "\" character when used in a file path name string. An example is:
scene_path = "g:/3dsmax25/scenes" -- specifies file path g:\3dsmax25\scenes
See also