is a sequence of characters forming one unit (or line) of a Genstat text structure. In most contexts, the string must be quoted: i.e. enclosed in single quotes ('). Quoted strings may contain any of the characters available on your computer. However, if single quote ('), double quote ("), or the continuation symbol (\) are required as characters within a quoted string, they must each be typed twice to distinguish this use from their action in, respectively, terminating the string, introducing a comment within the string, or indicating continuation.
Newline within a quoted string is taken to terminate the current (quoted) string and begin another one, unless the newline is within a comment or preceded by an (unduplicated) continuation symbol (\), or unless directive SET has specified that newline is to be ignored. Unquoted strings can occur in unnamed texts, or in option or parameter settings where you have to specify a particular string “token” from a prescribed set of possiblities; an unquoted string must have a letter as its first character and contain only letters or digits.