How to print strings with quotations in VB.NET [duplicate] - vb.net

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Possible Duplicate:
Escape double quote in VB string
I am assigning variables below with string values, and I would like to print these with quotations, although I am not sure how to accomplish this. So far everything prints fine, except for without quotations. What I have is below:
Dim tU As String = "Print_Me"
Dim tU2 As String = ""
Dim str1 As Integer = 1
Dim str2 As String = tU
Dim str3 As Single = 3.5
Dim str4 As String = tU2
Dim fw As New System.IO.StreamWriter("testfile.txt")
fw.WriteLine(str1 & "," & str2 & "," & str3 & "," & str4 & "," & 0)
fw.Close()
fw.Dispose()
'prints>>>1,Print_Me,3.5,,0<<<
'I like to print>>>1,"Print_Me",3.5,"",0<<<
EDIT
Dim tU As String = "Print_Me"
Dim tU2 As String = ""
Dim str1 As Integer = 1
Dim str2 As String = tU
Dim str3 As Single = 3.5
Dim str4 As String = tU2
Dim str5 As Integer = 0
Using fw As New System.IO.StreamWriter("testfile.txt")
fw.WriteLine(String.Format("""{0}"",""{1}"",""{2}"",""{3}"",""0""", str1, str2, str3, str4, str5))
End Using
''Currently prints>>> "1","Print_Me","3.5","","0"
''I would like to print>>> 1,"Print_Me",3.5,"",0
I am indirectly populating str1 through str5, but I do not want to print all of the items with quotations, so how might I adjust the solution to accomplish this?

Answer 1

Try escaping your double quotes by typing the " twice. Also I find String.Format is tidier than concatenation, and if you wrap your StreamWriter in a using block, you don't need to dispose of it, as this is done by the garbage collector.
Dim str1 As Integer = 1
Dim str2 As String = "Print_Me"
Dim str3 As Single = 3.5
Dim str4 As String = ""
Using fw As New System.IO.StreamWriter("testfile.txt")
fw.WriteLine(String.Format("""{0}"",""{1}"",""{2}"",""{3}"",""0""", str1, str2, str3, str4))
End Using
Also, you could probably give your variables clearer names. Naming them after the type is considered bad practice, as it doesn't really give us any information about what information the variable holds. Prefixing an Integer or a Single with str is worse, as somebody reading your code could wrongly think that the variable is a string, and thus try and treat it like such.
Edit: In response to your comment, first of all, in a VB.Net string, "" represents a single instance of a double quote, if you want to remove a double quote, just remove the "" and leave everything else intact. Secondly, it really doesn't matter if some of your strings are indirectly populated, you don't need to create a new variable to use them in a new string. In your code tu and str2 are pointing at the same piece of data, as are tu2 and str4, there is no need to create a new variable. If you have a piece of data held in a variable, you don't need to create a new variable to use it in a different way.

Answer 2

When your output is so regular (and possibly may contain many more strings) then an alternative that you may want to consider is this:
Dim str1 As Integer = 1
Dim str2 As String = "Print_Me"
Dim str3 As Single = 3.5
Dim str4 As String = ""
Dim strings() As String = _
{ _
str1, _
str2, _
str3, _
str4, _
"0" _
}
Using fw As New System.IO.StreamWriter("testfile.txt")
fw.WriteLine( _
String.Join( _
",", _
strings.Select(Function (s) """" & s & """")))
End Using
You still use the "" to indicate an inline quote, but you only need to do it twice. If your list of strings gets larger you only need to add them to the array (or it could be a list or any other enumerable).