sql language style issue with \"

[jimp100]

The built in sql language style seems to have issues parsing quoted literal string ending with a backslash, such as “C:\SQL Data\2019”.

It looks as though the trailing backslash is being interpreted as an escape character which is causes a mismatched number of slashes and the wrong text rendered as a literal (grey colour).

See lines 35,36,37 on these examples:

With trailing slashes

Without trailing slashes

[Alan Kilborn]

@jimp100

Perhaps this is relevant to you:

[jimp100]

@alan-kilborn Thank you that’s just what I was after. I did look around for a setting, just completely missed it.

[Alan Kilborn]

@jimp100 said in sql language style issue with \":

I did look around for a setting, just completely missed it.

It does feel like an orphan where it is! :-)

[PeterJones]

@alan-kilborn said in sql language style issue with \":

It does feel like an orphan where it is!

But being adopted by the Language tab, when it’s a Language-specific option, isn’t that extraordinary.

The real issue is that more Languages should have Language-specific options (like whether JSON should accept comments or not; I think there are other Language-specific options that Scintilla offers that Notepad++ doesn’t give access to, as well), and those other options should go on the same page (with possibly shrinking the height of the Language Menu and Tab Settings columns)

[Gary Cunningham]

This solution did not solve the issue for me:

Code before:

Code without terminating Backslashes:

Formatting returns.

Changing the Treat Backslash as escape character checkbox does not change this behaviour.

[rdipardo]

@Gary-Cunningham said in sql language style issue with \":

Changing the Treat Backslash as escape character checkbox does not change this behaviour.

Since Notepad++ v8.5.1, there are 2 SQL lexers.

The backslash option applies only to “SQL” (under S in the Language drop-down menu), which is intended for Oracle PL/SQL syntax, but may also be suitable for SQLite or MySQL. This is the default for files with the *.sql extension.

If you are editing scripts for SQL Server, the best option is “Microsoft Transact-SQL” (under M in the Language drop-down menu.

[Gary Cunningham]

@rdipardo This code is PLSQL and is defined under S as sql:

I think that the issue comes only for strings that terminate with a Backslash.

[Gary Cunningham]

@rdipardo

Case can be easily replicated:

[rdipardo]

@Gary-Cunningham

Syntax highlighting comes from a third-party library; their bug tracker is at https://github.com/ScintillaOrg/lexilla/issues

[mpheath]

@Gary-Cunningham

In PLSQL with '\', the \ would be escaping the ' string terminator so the ' character becomes literal and the string styling continues past the ' and terminates at the next instance of unescaped '.

The SQL lexer is informing you that the syntax is not correct based on the styling shown.

Differences in syntax:

	single backslash	double backslash	checkbox state
PLSQL	'\\'	'\\\\'	checked
SQLite	'\'	'\\'	unchecked

A backslash in SQLite is not a special character though in PLSQL it is an escape character .

PLSQL: Checkbox checked to style with \ escape syntax. To escape a backslash is to double it.

-- PLSQL syntax

-- ABC\\
select * from tablea
where col1 = 'ABC\\\\';

-- ABC\
select * from tablea
where col1 = 'ABC\\';

-- ABC
select * from tablea
where col1 = 'ABC';

SQLite: Checkbox unchecked as \ is a literal character in a string.

-- SQLite syntax

-- ABC\\
select * from tablea
where col1 = 'ABC\\';

-- ABC\
select * from tablea
where col1 = 'ABC\';

-- ABC
select * from tablea
where col1 = 'ABC';

[Gary Cunningham]

@mpheath Okay, bad example:

This may be a better one.

I have raised a bug as suggested by @rdipardo
Many thanks for all feedback

[PeterJones]

I don’t think there’s a bug in Scintilla’s handling of it:

In all these examples, SciTE has sql.backslash.escapes=1 on the left; it has it 0 on the right:

• @mpheath’s “SQLite”:
  

• @mpheath’s “PSQL”:
  

  • this isn’t an interesting test, because the example text always has dual slashes, which means that you’d never see a difference between the option being on or off

• @Gary-Cunningham’s “better one”:
  

That proves that in SciTE (and thus Scintilla/Lexilla’s LexSQL code), the option is doing the right thing. Thus, there is no bug to report to the Lexilla project. Since it’s already been reported, I am sure the Lexilla team will promptly reject it as invalid.

In Notepad++, if I toggle the option on the “better one” text, nothing happens! It should be treating them differently. So I thought maybe it required restarting Notepad++ (even though I didn’t think it used to require that): if I set that preference so it’s checkmarked, then exit Notepad++ and restart, the option goes back off. This really looks like a bug in Notepad++'s usage of the LexSQL, not a bug in LexSQL

I brought up PythonScript console, and even though Notepad++'s preferences show Treat backslash as escape character for SQL is off, getting the value of the property shows that Notepad++ has actually told Lexilla to always have that property on.

And if I manually change that property using the plugin, the actual property and lexer do what I expect:

vs

Thus, I am quite confident the bug is in Notepad++: it is not honoring its preference, and is instead always just setting the LexSQL property sql.backslash.escapes=1 regardless of the property.

---

addenda: here is the text version of the “better one” , for easy copy/paste

select 'ABCDE' from dual where 1=1;
select 'AB\CDE' from dual where 1=1;
select 'ABCDE\' from dual where 1=1;
select 'ABCDE' from dual where 1=1;
select 'AB\CDE' from dual where 1=1;

[Alan Kilborn]

I’m not sure about all the ins-and-outs of the SQL backslash stuff (as I don’t have a need), but I do notice that, when the setting in the Preferences is changed, if you’ve currently got a SQL tab selected, you have to switch to a different tab, then switch back to see something change. This is definitely a problem in the N++ logic.

EDIT:

Here’s what I did:

• using Notepad++ 8.7.5
• copied the text at the end of Peter’s POST into a new N++ tab
• changed the “language” on the tab to SQL using the N++ status bar
• opened Preferences and saw Treat backslash… was currently uncheckmarked

at this point I glanced back at the sql tab and saw this in N++ (which was unchanged from the moment I changed the language to sql):

Then I:

• checkmarked the Treat backslash… checkbox
• noticed no change in the contents of the active tab in N++ (still the sql tab)
• made the active tab a different tab
• made the sql tab active again

at this point I observed:

[PeterJones]

Update:

I looked at the Changes, and it showed v8.5.1 as the most-recent change to SQL, so I tried the following experiment:

If I go back to v8.5.0, when I toggle the option nothing happens, but if I restart, it keeps the state of the option, and the

vs

=====

If I swap to v8.5.1, it works the same. So it wasn’t the change in v8.5.1 that did it. :-(

So trying to search for the version that changed the behavior:

version	behavior
8.7.7	Ignores preference, always treats \ as escape
8.5	Honors preference after restart
8.5.1	Honors preference after restart
8.6	Honors preference after restart
8.7	Ignores preference, always treats \ as escape
8.6.5	Honors preference after restart
8.6.6	Honors preference after restart
8.6.7	Honors preference after restart
8.6.8	Honors preference after restart
8.6.9	Honors preference after restart

At this point, @Alan-Kilborn posted, so I retried v8.7 with toggling to license.txt and back to my SQL: For v8.7, if I switch to another tab and back, it does start following the preference for that instance. If I have the option off, so the “better one” is rendered as @Gary-Cunningham wants it, and restart Notepad++, it continues to hold the preference; however, if i turn the option on, then exit, when I restart Notepad++, it does not show the preference being on, but it treats it as if it is: I then have to toggle on the option and back off, then switch to a new tab then back to the SQL, for it to treat the option as if it’s off, like it says.

Going back to v8.6.9, if I toggle to a new 1 tab and back between toggling the preference, I no longer need to restart Notepad++, but it’s annoying to have to toggle to a different tab (ie, force a re-render).

But regardless of the toggle-to-different-tab or not, v8.6.9 annd v8.7.0 work differently when you first run Notepad++, depending on the state of that preference. And v8.7.0 was when the Indentation preferences were split off to a different page from the Langauge preferences, so it may have been something to do with that split…

[PeterJones]

For the main issue (escaping), I believe I have some Steps to Reproduce. Before putting in a bug report, I’d like confirmation that I’ve got the StR correct:

Create the file escape.sql

select 'ABCDE' from dual where 1=1;
select 'AB\CDE' from dual where 1=1;
select 'ABCDE\' from dual where 1=1;
select 'ABCDE' from dual where 1=1;
select 'AB\CDE' from dual where 1=1;

The expectation is that

state	screenshot	desc
\ is escape char		\' will not end the string
\ is normal char		\' will end the string

Steps to Reproduce

0. escape.sql created per above
1. Fresh portable unzip of v8.7 (or newer), delete config.xml , and open escape.sql ⇒ Rendering proves it defaults to treating \ as escape
2. Check Settings > Preferences > Language > Treat Backslash as escape character for SQL ⇒ is not checkmarked, even though the behavior obviously shows it is treating it as escape ⇒ this is the BUG
3. Toggle the option on.
4. Ctrl+W then Ctrl+Shift+T to reload/re-render the file ⇒ no change in rendering
5. Toggle the option off
6. Ctrl+W then Ctrl+Shift+T to reload/re-render the file ⇒ now the rendering changes and matches the preference, so it is now treating \ as normal character, like it should.
7. Exit Notepad++ (it should save the preference state)
8. Relaunch Notepad++ with the same file ⇒ now it has the right state when launched.
9. Turn the option back on.
10. Ctrl+W then Ctrl+Shift+T to reload/re-render the file ⇒ the rendering changes and matches the preference to treat \ as escape
11. Exit Notepad++ (it should save the preference state)
12. Relaunch Notepad++ with the same file ⇒ it’s treating \ as escape
13. Check Settings > Preferences > Language > Treat Backslash… and notice that like in step 2, it’s showing as unchecked, even though the preference state was saved as checked, and it’s behaving as if it’s checked

Expected Behavior (what worked in an older version)

0. escape.sql created per above
1. Fresh portable unzip of v8.6.9, delete config.xml , and open escape.sql ⇒ Defaults to treating \ as escape
2. Check Settings > Preferences > Language > Treat Backslash as escape character for SQL ⇒ it is checkmarked by default ⇒ this is the expected/good behavior
3. Toggle that option off
4. Ctrl+W then Ctrl+Shift+T to reload/re-render the file
5. Now it’s treating \ as normal character
6. With the option off, exit Notepad++, and restart Notepad++, opening the same file
7. This time, it renders \ as normal character, and Settings > Preferences > Language > Treat Backslash… is not checkmarked, as expected ⇒ this is the expected/good behavior

[PeterJones]

@Alan-Kilborn said in sql language style issue with \":

using Notepad++ 8.7.5

Confirmed: with v8.7.5 and earlier, changing tab is sufficient. But when I try with v8.7.6, v8.7.7, or v8.7.8-RC2, I have to close the tab and re-open it (the Ctrl+W, Ctrl+Shift+T from my StR) in order to get it to re-render: apparently, the Syntax Highlighter “efficiency” improvements made it harder to get the lexer to see the new state.

I’m going to create the issue for this preference highlighting-refresh first. Then I will later (hopefully after someone confirms my StR) create the issue for the preference not showing the stored state correctly in versions newer than v8.6.9

---

update: created issue #16244 for the preference refresh

[PeterJones]

Since no one tried my StR, but they show the problem 100% of the time for me, I put in Issue #16249 for the preference checkmark not being remembered after restart, and having the rendering not being the same as what the preference shows.

[mpheath]

@PeterJones Definitely a problem I see with the checkbox initial state and the set of the property.

The checkbox initial state needs 1 line of code to make it work. Seems overlooked as to why the code to do this does not currently exist.

diff --git a/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/Preference/preferenceDlg.cpp b/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/Preference/preferenceDlg.cpp
index 13409f709..a1cb7e7f6 100644
--- a/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/Preference/preferenceDlg.cpp
+++ b/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/Preference/preferenceDlg.cpp
@@ -3790,6 +3790,8 @@ intptr_t CALLBACK LanguageSubDlg::run_dlgProc(UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARA
 			::EnableWindow(::GetDlgItem(_hSelf, IDC_BUTTON_REMOVE), FALSE);
 			::EnableWindow(::GetDlgItem(_hSelf, IDC_BUTTON_RESTORE), FALSE);
 
+			::SendDlgItemMessage(_hSelf, IDC_CHECK_BACKSLASHISESCAPECHARACTERFORSQL, BM_SETCHECK, nppGUI._backSlashIsEscapeCharacterForSql ? TRUE : FALSE, 0);
+
 			return TRUE;
 		}

The property setting change of sql.backslash.escapes internally is ignored as PythonScript editor.getProperty('sql.backslash.escapes') shows no change in value. It’s like Lexilla is not receiving from the internally called SCI_SETPROPERTY to change the value. Yet, PythonScript can change the property so is a mystery to why the internal call is being ignored. setSqlLexer() is called on buffer change and _backSlashIsEscapeCharacterForSql value changes so do not know yet what is causing the failure to apply the property. I have been busy to find the cause and have little to show for it.

[PeterJones]

@mpheath said in sql language style issue with \":

Seems overlooked as to why the code to do this does not currently exist.

Ahh, I think I found it: essentially that line currently exists in IndentationSubDlg::run_dlgProc()'s WM_INITDIALOG rather than in the
LanguageSubDlg::run_dlgProc()'s WM_INITDIALOG where you put it.

When Indentation preferences was split off from the Language preferences in 439bbb0, it accidentally included the IDC_CHECK_BACKSLASHISESCAPECHARACTERFORSQL.

—

Update: submitted PR #16253 to move that line