BUG: Match Brace Command Foiled by String/Character Literals

 Last reviewed: July 21, 1997
Article ID: Q166946
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 97
  • Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, version 5.0
  • Microsoft Visual J++, version 1.1
  • Microsoft Visual InterDev, version 1.0

SYMPTOMS

The matching brace feature of the Text Editor (the GoToMatchBrace and GoToMatchBraceExtend commands) fails if code contains curly braces ({}), square brackets ([]), angle brackets (<>), or parentheses as literals. For example: 

   void test()
   {
     TCHAR szBar[] = _T("{");
     TCHAR chBar = _T('{');
   }
If you position the caret before the first brace and then execute the GoToMatchBrace command, nothing happens.

CAUSE

The editor keeps a count of the brace (or other character) it is trying to match as it scans the code. It does not recognize language tokens, so it cannot skip strings.

RESOLUTION

You can work around this by coding the brace (or other character) using an octal or hex escape sequence, instead of a literal. For example: 

   "{"
could be written: 

   "\x7B"

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this bug and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Keywords : vcbuglist500 VWBIss
Version : 1.1 1.0 5.0 97
Platform : NT WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug

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Last reviewed: July 21, 1997
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