What is the difference between single quotes and double quotes in Julia?
Unlike Python, for strings, it doesn't allow single quotes:
> s = 'abc'
syntax: invalid character literal
> s = "abc"
> print(s)
abc
But when trying to single quote a double quote, it's allowed:
> s = '"'
> print(s)
"
What is the single quote use for in Julia? Is there documentation like Python's PEP to explain for reason why single quotes are not used?
Think of it like in C/C++; a single quote makes a Char, while double quotes make a String (see, e.g., here).
julia> c = 'a'
'a'
julia> typeof(c)
Char
julia> s = "a"
"a"
julia> typeof(s)
String
julia> s = "ab"
"ab"
julia> typeof(s)
String
In Python we just use a string of length one as characters, but Julia distinguishes between them, and so we get
julia> typeof("abc"[1:1])
String
julia> typeof("abc"[1])
Char
even though in Python we have
>>> type("abc"[0:1])
<type 'str'>
>>> type("abc"[0])
<type 'str'>
