<string>

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The <string> CSS data type represents a sequence of characters. Strings are used in numerous CSS properties, such as content, font-family, and quotes.

Syntax

The <string> data type is composed of any number of Unicode characters surrounded by either double (") or single (') quotes.

Most characters can be represented literally. All characters can also be represented with their respective Unicode code points in hexadecimal, in which case they are preceded by a backslash (\). For example, \22 represents a double quote, \27 a single quote ('), and \A9 the copyright symbol (©).

Importantly, certain characters which would otherwise be invalid can be escaped with a backslash. These include double quotes when used inside a double-quoted string, single quotes when used inside a single-quoted string, and the backslash itself. For example, \\ will create a single backslash.

To output new lines, you must escape them with a line feed character such as \A or \00000A. In your code, however, strings can span multiple lines, in which case each new line must be escaped with a \ as the last character of the line.

However, to get new lines, you must also set the white-space property to appropriate value.

Note: Character references (such as &nbsp; or &#8212;) cannot be used in a CSS <string>.

Examples

Examples of valid strings

css
/* Basic strings */
"This string is demarcated by double quotes."
'This string is demarcated by single quotes.'

/* Character escaping */
"This is a string with \" an escaped double quote."
"This string also has \22 an escaped double quote."
'This is a string with \' an escaped single quote.'
'This string also has \27 an escaped single quote.'
"This is a string with \\ an escaped backslash."

/* New line in a string */
"This string has a \Aline break in it."

/* String spanning two lines of code (these two strings will have identical output) */
"A really long \
awesome string"
"A really long awesome string"

Specifications

Specification
CSS Values and Units Module Level 4
# strings

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also