  Hi.
  I'm trying to analyse information from a large database using R. I have some problems with quotes during the generation of strings.
   
  Setting: I extract data from a lot of sampling location (chemical data on water quality) 
  and for each location I have a date of sampling and a value. I want to put everything in a list such that for each sampling point (say OS1) I have two columns (date, time). I use the function sqlQuery from the RODBC package.
   
  Here is an example that works:
  OxygenMeasurements$OS1 <- sqlQuery(channel, "SELECT saDateTime, sdValue FROM dbo_Sample WHERE (paID = 213) AND (stCode ='OS1');")
   
  To keep the code "elegant" and, above all, short I try to regenerate the same
  function call with a different query statement for each sampling point by using 
  the paste() function.
   
  (1) sqlquery <- paste("SELECT saDateTime, sdValue FROM dbo_Sample WHERE (paID = 213) AND (stCode ='" , paste(stations$stCode, sep=",") , "');" , sep="")
  This gives a vector with the sql syntax. The following line generates the whole sqlQuery-statement.
   
  (2) queries <- paste("OxygenMeasurements$", paste(stations[,1]), " <- sqlQuery(channel, \"", paste(sqlquery) , " \")" , sep="")
   
  This is the result for the first two elements of 'queries':
   
  "OxygenMeasurements$OS1 <- sqlQuery(channel, \"SELECT saDateTime, sdValue FROM dbo_Sample WHERE (paID = 213) AND (stCode ='OS1'); \")"
  "OxygenMeasurements$OS2 <- sqlQuery(channel, \"SELECT saDateTime, sdValue FROM dbo_Sample WHERE (paID = 213) AND (stCode ='OS2'); \")"
   
  If these are evaluated ( eval(queries)) it should fill the datastructure "OxygenMeasurements" with the desired data.
   
  The problem:
  The query statement containts a string and is a string in itself. In addition elements of 'queries' are strings. R doesn't seem to be able to cope with this, since it generates \" on locations where a " has to be put. Is there a way to let the paste function generate
  a string with " in it without the \ ?
   
  In a way there are 3 nested strings and R can only cope with 2 levels (by using ' and ") in my view.
   
  Does anyone know how to put " IN the string instead of \"?
   
  Thanks for the feedback.
   
  Tom

		
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