New version?

Site Discussion
1

I reckon a new version has been installed (I figure that happens automatically, rather than as an explicit action)

My guess is that has caused the formatting of single quotes ' to change to "pretty quotes".

Seen several recent posts now where the O/P has NOT formatted their code, and all the single-quotes have been mangled.

But I don't remember that being an issue in the past.

FWIW I find it hugely tedious that no newcomers on this site format their code. Clearly they have no idea how to do that, which is a failing of the software (not following the older conventions, and it not being apparent to the O/P that they must use MARKDOWN [which i hate, as you will have gathered :slight_smile:)

Then the Forum software tries to interpret other stuff (for MARKDOWN) and mangles <word> with angle-brackets (I've deliberately escaped that) and anything with * or _ - all of which occur in SQL Code and succumb to being mangled - if not formatted.

Newbeis need to be directed to a How to Post page that explains what they need to do. I'm happy to write some content if that would be helpful. Once they've posted its too late ... all of us start wasting time guessing what the O/P might have Cut & Pasted or, in current example, we are providing solutions with wrong quotes - ` instead of ' (I don't even know HOW to highlight the first of those two without the Forum "eating" it) and then the O/P copies and pastes into SSMS and it doesn't work (and they are clearly too thick to work out that its a Quotes issue - although in fairness with many fonts the difference between ` and ' is hard to see)

Can anything be done?

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I totally agree - It's frustrating for all parties.

This site should be more intuitive, but as previous discussions about this topic turn out -> nothing, I don't dare get my hopes up

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I LOATHE "SMART QUOTES" WITH THE HATRED OF A THOUSAND BURNING SUNS!

(And this site thinks that's not a complete sentence, so I had to add this sentence for no other reason.)

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The iron is that your Post includes Smart Quotes :slight_smile:

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Well save the iron, my pants are wrinkled.

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Hehehe ... such a Smart Quote :slight_smile:

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Just seen some code with Pretty Quotes in another thread. I'm reasonably certain that the O/P would have pasted it with straight quotes ... so I thought I'd try it out in this thread.

I've fixed the quotes so that they are straight. Here it is "without CODE formatting"

This statement generated a VARCHAR(67): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, 0.00)
this statement returned a VARCHAR(30): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, '0.00')

What I have pasted definitely has Straight Quotes in the EDIT window, but the preview on the right looks like Pretty Quotes

and here it is pasted into a SQL code block

This statement generated a VARCHAR(67): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, 0.00)
this statement returned a VARCHAR(30): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, '0.00')

and a TEXT code block

This statement generated a VARCHAR(67): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, 0.00)
this statement returned a VARCHAR(30): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, '0.00')

and lastly just pasted and then pressing the </> button

This statement generated a VARCHAR(67): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, 0.00)
this statement returned a VARCHAR(30): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, '0.00')

EDIT: Having posted that I am now copy and pasting the resulting text into a TEXT block:

This statement generated a VARCHAR(67): SELECT CONCAT(‘a’, ‘b’, 1, 2, 0.00)
this statement returned a VARCHAR(30): SELECT CONCAT(‘a’, ‘b’, 1, 2, ‘0.00’)

and, yeah, the single-quotes have been mangled.

So the upshot is that ANY code that is posted containing quotes and NOT formatted, by the O/P, is going to be useless to us for re-use/testing in SSMS etc. ...

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@graz flag - just in case he's asleep at his desk again ... :slight_smile:

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Ugh. Let me see if I can log a ticket.

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And I found a setting to change. Give it a try now and see how it's doing. Are these "smart" quotes? Are these 'smart' quotes?

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This statement generated a VARCHAR(67): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, 0.00)
this statement returned a VARCHAR(30): SELECT CONCAT('a', 'b', 1, 2, '0.00')

Looks better, thanks @graz

Would still like to see something for newcomers that tell them how to format, so we get formatted code and MARKDOWN doesn't swallow underscores, asterisk and angle-brackets (as formatting instructions)

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There is some text I can tweak for first-timers. I'm not hopeful anyone will actually read though. People tend to just ... start ... posting. I'll see if i can look at this this weekend.

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yeah, that will be the case ...

I've had various, draconian, tangential thoughts. None play out well in my mind ...

"Thanks for your post, see these instructions for making your question acceptable to the team here. No one will answer until you have done that."

Then we have no posts to read at all !!