Character Literals in Format Strings

Whenever the format string comes from code, by default the compiler will take care of converting the character literals into their Unicode representation:

Example:

string.Format("\t")
Smart.Format("\t")
// result in both cases: TAB

Things are different, when the format string is read from a file or resource. Example:

string.Format(@"Read from file \t")
// result: "Read from file \t"

There is a property ConvertCharacterStringLiterals in SmartSettings. This setting is relevant for interpreting character literals. If true (the default), character string literals will be treated just like the compiler would do.

ConvertCharacterStringLiterals = true

string.Format("\t") and Smart.Format(@"\t") will return a "TAB" character

Character literals are allowed in all formatters.

ConvertCharacterStringLiterals = false

Character string literals are not converted. string.Format(@"\t") and SmartFormat(@"\t") will return the 2 characters "\" and "t"

Note:

This is a breaking change to Smart.Format versions prior to 2.1. Users may notice this e.g., when the format string contains file system paths. In order to achieve the "old" behavior, ConvertCharacterStringLiterals in SmartSettings must be set to false or the backslashes must be escaped.