Text Blocks
Java 1515+ gained the Text Blocks feature. This feature is a revamp of the Raw String Literals feature discussed below.
See also: Does Java have support for multiline strings?
I will leave intact the outmoded content below as history. And I’ll add a mention of making your IDE aware of your SQL-within-Java.
Language-savvy strings
The IntelliJ IDE provides for language injections. See this article and video by Helen Scott. You can flag the embedded language by using either annotation or a comment.
Language injection works well with Java text blocks.
@Language ("SQL")
String sql = """
SELECT *
FROM product_
;
""";
IntelliJ will colorize the embedded language. And you can open a dedicated editor section to provide for language-appropriate editing.
Language injection works for SQL, JSON, RegExp, and more.
Other IDEs may provide a similar feature.
[Outmoded content below left intact as history.]
Raw String Literals
Work is underway to introduce raw string literals into the Java language. Along with that comes the multi-line strings desired in this Question.
JEP 326
See JEP 326: Raw String Literals.
Excerpts:
Add raw string literals to the Java programming language. A raw string literal can span multiple lines of source code and does not interpret escape sequences, such as \n, or Unicode escapes, of the form \uXXXX …
supply strings targeted for grammars other than Java, …
supply strings that span several lines of source without supplying special indicators for new lines.
Nesting SQL is one of the example use-cases given in the JEP.
Status update by Brian Goetz
See Raw string literals -- where we are, how we got here by Brian Goetz, 2018-03-27.
They are leaning towards using any number of backticks as the raw-string-literal starting-stopping delimiters. A single backtick would be most common, but use a number of them if the text value happens to contain backticks. So no escaping needed at all.
Excerpts:
… things have largely stabilized with raw string literals …
String ss = `a multi-
line-string`;
By the way, you may find the article, New Methods on Java Strings With JDK 11 by Dustin Marx to be interesting. It covers some new Unicode-savvy string-trimming methods being added to Java 11. These may be related to the eventual raw string literals feature.
