# Pure Bikeshedding: Raw Strings (why yes, again!)

**URL:** <https://forums.swift.org/t/pure-bikeshedding-raw-strings-why-yes-again/13866>\
**Category:** Discussion\
**Created:** [June 20, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://forums.swift.org/t/pure-bikeshedding-raw-strings-why-yes-again/13866 "2018-06-20T04:08:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 80

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tino](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/swift/user_avatar/forums.swift.org/tino/32/1073_2.png) [@Tino](https://forums.swift.org/u/Tino)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 10:20pm UTC](https://forums.swift.org/t/pure-bikeshedding-raw-strings-why-yes-again/13866/80 "2018-06-25T22:20:36Z")

</div>

> [@johnno1962](#):
>
> I’d be disappointed to see a whole character ‘ squandered on something as niche as raw strings.

... and the first answer in thread about single quotes for character literals is

> [@Prepitch: Character integer literals](https://forums.swift.org/t/prepitch-character-integer-literals/10442/2):
>
> My first thoughts are that this seems like a niche use case which probably isn’t worth reserving single quotes for

In the end, we might be saving that ' forever ;-)

> [@johnno1962](#):
>
> The more general statement is that you really need to have a different character for the extra delimiter than your quote character at the least

Agreed. Without a delimiter between "real" delimiter and payload, you can't tell where the payload starts... at the same time, I think the use of different characters is a major reason for ugliness.  
So, can we find a separator with minimal ugliness?

```
let string = ' space isn't ugly, but might be confusing'
let string = '''・This looks humble, but I don't know how to type it'''
let string = '.easy to type, not really beautiful'
let string = ''':How is that?"'
let string = '''/How is that?"'
let string = '''\How is that?"'
let string = '''#How is that?"'
let string = \'We could also use another character that is still available\
let string = \\\'Would be a good fit if we choose slashed for /regex/\\\

```

Having arbitrary delimiter strings imho adds much ugliness, and in real applications, I don't think the decrease in flexibility is a real issue.

So, are there any dealbreakers for the "repeated marker with separator" family of options?

---

_[View the full topic](https://forums.swift.org/t/pure-bikeshedding-raw-strings-why-yes-again/13866)._