Question: > 
> **Possible Duplicate:**  
> 
> [What's the @ in front of a string for .NET?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/556133/whats-the-in-front-of-a-string-for-net) 
> 
> 
> 

I understand using the `@` symbol is like an escape character for a string.

However, I have the following line as a path to store a file to a mapped network drive:

`String location = @"\\192.168.2.10\datastore\\" + id + "\\";`

The above works fine but now I would like to get a string from the command line so I have done this:

`String location = @args[0] + id + "\\";`

The above doesn't work and it seems my slashes aren't ignored. This my command:

`MyProgram.exe "\\192.168.2.10\datastore\\"`

How can I get the effect of the `@` symbol back?

Answer: 
It is used for two things:

* create "verbatim" strings (ignores the escape character): `string path = @"C:\Windows"`
* escape language keywords to use them as identifiers: `string @class = "foo"`

In your case you need to do this:

```
String location = args[0] + id + @"\\";

```
The @ symbol goes right before the quotes. It only works on string literals, and it simply changes the way the string is understood by the compiler. The main thing it does is cause `\` to be interpreted as a literal backslash, rather than escaping the next character. So you want:

```
String location = args[0] + id + @"\\";

```