Here's how they work:
* Defining strings: You enclose the characters you want to treat as a string within double quotes. For example:
* `message = "Hello, world!"`
* `number = "12345"`
* Differentiating strings from other data types: Double quotes tell the computer that you're dealing with a string, not a variable, number, or other data type.
* Special characters: Some programming languages allow you to use double quotes to represent special characters, such as newline (`\n`) or tab (`\t`).
Example in Python:
```python
message = "Hello, world!"
print(message) # Output: Hello, world!
```
Different languages might have slightly different rules for using double quotes, so it's important to refer to the specific language documentation.
Here are some key points to remember about double quotes:
* Double quotes are often used in conjunction with single quotes ('). The choice depends on the specific language and the context.
* Double quotes can be used to enclose strings that contain single quotes, and vice versa.
* Double quotes can be used to escape special characters within strings.
* They are an essential part of string handling in programming and play a crucial role in representing textual data.