What is the most aesthetic way to to escape a single quote within a single-quoted string in (ba)sh?

Question

In a (ba)sh script of mine, I have, for example:

MYVAR=\'Alice says: \"Hello, Bob.\" But Bob isn\'t listening.\'

This is a syntax error, since

Answer 1

A non-POSIX solution which is supported in bash, at least, is the following:

MYVAR=$'Alice says: "Hello, Bob." But Bob isn\'t listening.'

The $ causes escape processing.

Answer 2

Using a HEREDOC is a good way to deal with this:

read MYVAR << \EOF
Alice says: "Hello, Bob." But Bob isn't listening.
EOF

Answer 3

You could also use double quotes and escaping. I guess, it is simpler than change the language:

MYVAR="Alice says: \"Hello, Bob.\" But Bob isn't listening."

More information about escaping symbols in bash.

Answer 4

No, you can't embed a single quote inside a single quoted string in Bash (or korn shell). It is a feature of the language you have chosen. Inside single quotes there are no special characters, and that includes \.

This is a variation on one of your solutions, and it is ugly:

 echo 'Alice says: "Hello, Bob." But Bob isn'\''t listening.'

gives:

Alice says: "Hello, Bob." But Bob isn't listening.

Alternatively use a different language, like Perl or Python.

Answer 5

I'm not sure why switching to $'...' is an option but switching to double quotes is not (presumably to prevent some sort of parameter expansion). But you don't need to double quote the entire string:

MYVAR='Alice says: "Hello, Bob." But Bob '"isn't"' listening.'