Double quote

The double quote is ASCII character 34 ("). Often used in programming languages to delimit strings. In Unix shells and Perl it delimits a string inside which variable substitution may occur.

The lack of typographical-style opening and closing quotation marks in ASCII leads to extra contortions for word processing software.

This character is also used to indicate length in inches, or angle or time in seconds.

Common names

• quotation mark
• quote

Rare names

• dirk
• double-glitch
• double prime
• INTERCAL: rabbit-ears
• ITU-T: dieresis
• ITU-T: quotation marks
• literal mark

---

This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission. Update as necessary.