Dear Emacs folks, dear Michael, sql.el parses SQL strings containing escaped (double) apostrophes as separate strings (e.g. jumping right between the two apostrophes with forward-sexp) because it uses only parsing by syntax table, which cannot handle this construct. This should be an adequate description of the limitation/bug, but more details are available at: https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/56352/can-syntax-parsing-recognize-the-sql-escape-apostrophe-single-quote-constru The attached is a diff against sql.el version 3.6 as shipped with Emacs 26.3. that implements propertizing such double apostrophes within strings with a punctuation syntax table property. (I have posted the code with exhaustive comments, which I thought excessive for working code, at the above URL.) My tests were movement commands across sexps, which crossed the whole string, and the return value of (syntax-ppss (point)) which returned a list such as (1 129 139 39 nil nil 0 nil 154 (129) nil) when between two such apostrophes, just like when elsewhere in a string. I have done no further testing. I do hope this meets the standards for a patch, as I've never submitted one before. Best regards to everybody, and stay well! Florian Florian v. Savigny Siebenpfeiffer Str. 25 66482 Zweibrücken Germany 0175 - 365 24 17